Here’s my latest Chicago Tribune column. To access the link, click on my Twitter feed.

This week, I wrote about the unfortunate demise of Pro Football Weekly. What started as modest enterprise in 1967 by Arthur Arkush, whose only employee was his mother, Rose, blossomed into a popular magazine and more through the work of his sons, Hub and Dan.

From the post:

At its height, Pro Football Weekly became an iconic brand during the soaring popularity of the NFL in the 1970s and ’80s. Before ESPN and the digital age, the magazine provided quality inside information and analysis for a faithful legion of football fans. It also evolved into long-running syndicated radio and TV shows.

Ultimately, though, Pro Football Weekly fell victim to a media climate that is claiming victims on a daily basis.

“It’s not just us,” Arkush said. “It’s The Sporting News, Newsweek. It’s happening all over.”

The downfall occurred despite the enterprise making dramatic changes in its platforms. In 2010, Gatehouse Media, which earlier acquired the Riverwoods-based operation from Arkush, invested $2 million in a new digital plan. Arkush said Pro Football Weekly actually exceeded expectations as it tripled traffic on its site; registering 1.3 million users for its mobile service; and generating 15-18 million page views for its videos.

However, Pro Football Weekly encountered the same obstacle as many other publications.

“Nobody wanted to pay for it,” Arkush said. “Nobody was willing to pay for those mobile phone apps. They’ll pay for games, but not content. (With video), we had the same numbers all the big guys are trading on. You would think advertisers would line up. We sold 10 percent of what we were projected to sell.”

I’ll more from my interview with Hub Arkush later this week.

Judging from all the support he has received, Zak Gilbert won’t be out of work for long.

NFL writers were outraged when Mark Davis, in a move befitting his father, Al Davis, fired Gilbert over the weekend. Reportedly, it stemmed from a negative article on the Raiders in Sports Illustrated.

In his Monday Morning Quarterback column on SI.com, Peter King weighed in on Gilbert’s dismissal. Regarding the absurd notion that Gilbert could have changed the nature of Jim Trotter’s piece, King wrote:

Judge for yourself if the PR guy, who has nothing to do with Trotter’s story other than to facilitate interviews, should be canned. I can tell you, from knowing Trotter, that any advice on the story from a PR person would have been met, correctly, with some version of: Thanks for your thoughts. I can take it from here.

King then wrote what should be a letter of recommendation for Gilbert.

One last point about the job Gilbert did. A buddy of mine who writes about the league mentioned to me last season how strange it was to go cover the Raiders now “and actually not dread it.” Much of that was due to Gilbert reopening many avenues of access to a team that had been shuttered to the outside in the Al Davis days. Example: A couple of weeks ago, on Twitter, I said I couldn’t figure out why Charles Woodson signed with Oakland instead of Denver. Gilbert saw the tweet and forwarded me Woodson’s transcript after signing, and asked if I’d like to talk to Woodson. Sure, I said. Gilbert tried, and it seemed Woodson said he was done with media until Raiders minicamp. Gilbert said he thought Woodson should do this one interview if possible, and Woodson said OK.

I’m sure the result wasn’t exactly what Gilbert had in mind — the Raiders were pushing the Woodson-coming-home story angle, and Woodson told me it was primarily the signing bonus that made Oakland more attractive than Denver — but the point is Gilbert understood the business. He put the guy in front of me. What the guy said after that, Gilbert couldn’t control. His job was to get his guy’s story out.

 

Al Davis may be gone, but it appears his son, Mark, has picked up the torch when it comes to being whacky.

The Raiders fired PR director Zak Gilbert Saturday. SF Gate writes:

The Raiders fired P.R. Director Zak Gilbert Saturday. Gilbert had been on the job for one year, and was fired by Raiders owner Mark Davis after he had been brought in by general manager Reggie McKenzie, who had worked with Gilbert in Green Bay.

Team sources say Davis was unhappy with a Sports Illustrated story that was published in April looking back on the team’s 4-12 season in 2012. The article, written by Jim Trotter, cast McKenzie in a good light but Mark Davis didn’t like how the story painted him or the job done by his father, late owner Al Davis, in the previous 10 years.

Gilbert had not been at the facility since the story came out, and was on leave pending Mark Davis’ decision. Will Kiss and Erin Exum have been coordinating interviews and media access during the NFL Draft and organized workouts.

Sure, blame the PR guy for a story that said the Raiders have sucked for a decade. It had nothing to do with Al or Mark, right?

Good luck to the next person who takes that job. One piece of advice: Rent.

An institution since 1967 is no more. Pro Football Weekly is shutting down.

Hub Arkush, the editor and publisher, broke the news on PFW’s site last night.

Arkush wrote:

This is the one piece I’ve spent part of my childhood and my entire adult life working to avoid having to write. But as I’ve come to learn repeatedly over the 46 years or so during which that effort has been ongoing, often at a significant price, you can’t win ‘em all. So, in my final act as the voice of Pro Football Weekly, it is time to say goodbye. Pro Football Weekly, as we’ve all known it since the first issue rolled off the press in late August of 1967, is no more.

The legal explanation of our demise is posted right here at ProFootballWeekly.com. Technically we were PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY, LLC, a partnership, and contrary to popular perception, I have been neither the majority owner nor the managing partner for quite some time. I was the publisher/editor responsible for the day-to-day operation of the business, an employee with a minority interest in the partnership. That is probably irrelevant, though, as there really are no bad guys in this story.

Over the last five years our majority owner and each of the minority partners invested a tremendous amount of money, time and effort to try to build a bridge for PFW from the rapidly deteriorating world of old media to the new, exploding market of digital media and glitzy, new products. We built some truly great stuff that you all seemed to love, but try as we might, we couldn’t get enough of you to pay what it cost us to deliver it. There comes a time when there is just no more money to lose, and now we are forced to close the doors.

As expected, the NFL officially announced today that the 2014 draft will be May 8-10 at Radio City Music Hall. The late date is due to a scheduling conflict at the Hall.

However, the release included this interesting statement from the NFL:

“No decision has been made regarding the dates of the NFL Draft in 2015 and beyond. A variety of alternatives are being explored, teams were told, including holding the draft at Radio City or at other locations, either in the New York area or in other cities.”

Yes, it’s time to move the draft to other cities. It is getting old listening to Jets fans whine about their picks. Let other fans have a chance to complain.

Besides, the draft is becoming more and more of spectacle. Moving it around would give the draft a different feel, which would add unique qualities to the telecasts.

It won’t be long before the draft is in arenas and even stadiums. Imagine the scene when Mel Kiper Jr. gets introduced on draft night to 70,000 people. I want to be there for that one.

Yet another example of how things are different in the new world of sports media.

Earlier this week, Jim Litke of the Associated Press wrote a column that was highly critical of the NFL. Mostly, he slammed the league’s decision not to award a Super Bowl to Miami because the city can’t build a new stadium.

That kind of arrogance may seem breathtaking, but it’s all just another day’s work for the NFL. Goodell runs a cartel that could teach the International Olympic Committee a thing or two about ruthlessness.

In the past, the only recourse for the NFL PR department would have been to call Litke and scream at him for a long time over the phone. However, the league now has its own “NFL Communications” blog.

That allowed Greg Aiello to write an open letter, refuting Litke’s claims. Aiello writes:

Dear Jim: I am compelled to respond to your column today because it is not only unfair but also inaccurate and misleading in many respects.

Steve Ross’s stadium renovation proposal called for Mr. Ross to pay for 70 percent of the costs, as well as to bring Super Bowls and other marquee events to South Florida or pay a substantial financial penalty (in excess of $100 million) if he failed to do so. Your column neglected to mention those facts and inaccurately said that he wants “taxpayers to foot the bill,” implying the entire bill.

Mr. Ross’s proposed investment is consistent with stadium development throughout our league. There are 13 stadium projects in the pipeline now with 74 percent ($3.2 billion) of the costs being privately financed by NFL owners. Your column says that new NFL stadiums are “largely publicly-financed stadiums.” That is not true. You completely overlooked the extraordinary amount of private money that is going into NFL stadium projects. Specifically, private investment accounts for 100 percent of the cost of the Jets/Giants’ MetLife Stadium, more than 60 percent in Dallas, more than 90 percent in San Francisco, more than 70 percent in Atlanta, and more than  50 percent in Minneapolis.

This hardly is the first time a league disagreed with Litke’s views. I am sure he is used to it.

However, Aiello’s open letter allowed the NFL to get its rebuttal out to a much larger audience.

Guess it works both ways in the new world of sports media.