We’ve got some pretty seismic changes happening today here at JWH that I need to tell you about, changes that should make it easier to follow the Bears online. As of today, we are combining a lot of our efforts here with HersheyBears.com and the team’s official YouTube page in an effort to make it easier for you to find all the cool stuff we’ve all been able to put together this season. A good bit of what this site has become this season has been video content, and there’s also some great stuff that Great Save Productions has assembled in the last few months, such as the home game highlights and now Mark French’s postgame press conference. After some discussions internally with the team, we think it’s best to make all the videos that we all put together in the same place so that everyone out there can see everything that’s going on with the team.
Starting today and moving forward, all of the videos here will now be seen here
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHersheyBears
You can also access this page from HersheyBears.com, in the bottom right corner of your screen if you don’t have a chance to bookmark this new link here.
In other words, if you like the video interviews from practice with Mark French and the players during the week, you’ll still get all of them at the official team site. Ed Coffey’s post game interviews in the dressing room? Same thing, we’ll still have it all but in a different location. Highlights from the road games? Yep, I’ll have those there as well. Plus, you’ll have all the videos that Great Save puts together, like the video opens at the games, home game highlights, Mark’s postgame video with all the reporters you see after games and hear on your ride home on our postgame show. More content, just all put together in a different place.
There are other reasons for the changes today. The team has asked me to help to improve the content on HersheyBears.com as we head toward the Calder Cup playoffs. Some things you’ll see right away, like Joe Shetrom’s South Carolina update every Monday making the move to HersheyBears.com. I’ll do a little more writing for the site as well. Some things you may not see until the offseason, but we’ve got some exciting things we’re working on for next season already, projects that I believe will help improve the site greatly in 2010-11. Marketing Manager Andy Longenberger has some very cool stuff in the pipeline that he needs my assistance with, and I’m convinced it will make HersheyBears.com the most cutting edge site in the league when he’s done with it. With my work here on this site and now at the “new” HersheyBears.com, the mission stays the same. To give as many Bears fans as possible the most inside access to the greatest team in AHL history. Moving forward, we’re going to gear what we’ve already been doing to Hershey’s official team site.
Obviously, with the content switching sites, what this site here at JWH has been over the last couple of seasons, this site will soon fade to black, yielding to the more widely followed HersheyBears.com and the team’s official YouTube page. There was a time when Hershey’s site did not have the tools to bring you the latest in multimedia content. Quite frankly, that’s how JWH came to be in the first place. Now, as HersheyBears.com takes the next step in improving content with a place for video clips, audio clips, and more, I’ll have a firm and sturdy hand on what happens on the team’s official site, and we’re going to make it the best in the AHL. A site that mirrors the best and most historic team in the AHL. Follow us over to HersheyBears.com and http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHersheyBears
My Twitter and Facebook pages that I'm involved with will remain the same, at Hershey Bears Radio Network on FB, and @jwaltonhockey on Twitter. No changes on that front, with nearly 3,000 of you getting your hockey information that way.
For those of you that have made this site a huge success, I thank you. A lot of hard work went into this over the last two years, but it won’t be for naught. You’ll just need to change your bookmark to the new YouTube link for all the video stuff. Starting this week, it’s just going to get bigger and better.
-John
