Some breaking news hot off the presses down at SensChirp Enterprises.
It’s not an off-ice scandal, the trading of a fan-favourite or rumours about the imminent sale of the team but it will have to do for a Monday afternoon.
SensChirp is excited to announce a new advertising and content partnership with The Nation Network. The Nation Network, which now includes 15 sites, generates more than 12 million page views a month.
It’s a big step for the site as we continue to grow one of the most active hockey communities anywhere on the internet. And it has me reflecting on the long road to this point.
It started in 2007, I think.
I was crawling my way towards a degree in Communications and starting to become overwhelmed with the idea of actually finding a job when I finished university.
Bruce Garrioch seemed to have a pretty strong hold on the Sens’ beat, moving away from Ottawa didn’t really appeal to me and my audition for an on-air gig with The Score has ended in a moment similar to the “boom goes the dynamite” guy. My options seemed limited.
It was in those moments of desperation that SensChirp was born.
See a couple years earlier, I had reached out to Bruce Garrioch looking for advice on how to break into the field of sports journalism. He gave me a bunch of tips but there was one that always stuck with me. Simple and to the point.
“Write, write, write”.
With that advice in mind and with the prospect of having to find a real job looming, an idea was developed.
The details of those early days have become muddled over time but I am quite certain it was hashed out between me and a couple friends over Thursday night jagerbombs at Minglewoods. Where most good ideas come from, really.
I knew I wanted to write about the Senators and had developed a bit of a following in the Sportsnet Message Boards. Chara03/Jose_Cuervo as some of you may recall. I had a friend who knew a thing or two about computers (how to turn one on and how to open a web browser) and a friend who knew some people in the Sens organization.
And that’s all it took.
Fast forward 12 years, thousands of posts and millions of comments later and SensChirp is still alive and kickin’.
What started as a rumour here and a Saprykin trade there has evolved into one of the most engaged sports-related communities anywhere on the internet.
The last few years have been tough though. With a full-time job, two young children and a team that has generally sucked for three years now, it has been challenging to keep things going.
But with today’s announcement, it feels like we have a chance to take things to the next level.
More content, faster. More engagement with the community. New ideas (podcast? events? expanded merchandise?) and more time for me to focusing on writing. I assume it also means billions and billions of dollars in advertising money that will one day allow me to buy the Ottawa Senators.
In all seriousness and maybe most importantly from my perspective, it means stability for the site.
Here’s Zach Laing from the Nation Network with a bit about the network and what this means around here…
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Hey SensChirp!
My name is Zach Laing and I’m the News Director of the Nation Network. We’re a family of hockey sites spanning everything from our cap site PuckPedia, to hockeyfights.com, to team sites like Oilersnation, Flamesnation and Canucksarmy.
The Network started out of Edmonton over a decade ago where we continue to host our headquarters, the Nation Network has grown exponentially and we’re super excited to be partnering up with SensChirp.
You can all expect to see my byline around the website from time to time as I’ll be working to bring more news content on an as it happens basis. We want SensChirp to be the first website that anyone goes to when they’re looking for anything to do with the Ottawa Senators.
The Nation Network is very excited to see what we can do together moving forward.
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In the short-term, you won’t notice a huge difference.
Same ol’ snarky attempts at humour on Game Day, five thoughts when I can scrape ’em together and the usual bustling comment section where you can get the all the latest on the Sens and/or the global pandemic. But it will also mean more content, including news as it happens, and more engagement with the community that is the driving force behind this site.
As always, the readers remain at the centre of everything we do here so if you have suggestions on how we can continue to improve things, let me know.
There have been times lately where it felt like SensChirp might be on it’s last legs. But with this partnership, it feels like the best is yet to come for the site.
Welcome aboard, Nation Network!
