Hey guys,

As Bleacher Report looks to continue building its brand as the web’s premiere destination for high quality fan journalism, we are tightening up our standards for content syndication.

For our purposes, syndication means that a Bleacher Report writer’s article has an excellent chance of being linked to by CBS Sports and/or Google News.

Going forward, all Bleacher Report writers will be officially evaluated for “Syndicated Writer” status based upon the quality of their submissions. This evaluation will include, amongst other factors, an internal review by Bleacher Report’s editorial staff.

The review process will be ongoing—writers who are not initially selected will have their articles syndicated on a case-by-case basis, and be given an opportunity to attain full-time syndication status through continued work on honing their craft and ensuring that their content is consistently in line with the network’s editorial standards.

By the same token, being a syndicated writer is an honor that must be upheld at all times, and may be removed if at any point a writer publishes content that jeopardizes the B/R brand.

Those writers who are deemed qualified will now find a “Syndicated Writer” badge on their profile. Anyone who has not written an article in the past six months has not been reviewed for syndication approval—if you’d like to be reviewed, please log back in to B/R and write another article.

This new policy is being enacted to ensure that Bleacher Report’s partner sites receive only the best that the network has to offer. That said, rest assured that Bleacher Report’s doors are still as open as they ever were to aspiring journalists and die-hard fans, regardless of whether or not their writing is fit for syndication.

Thanks as always to everyone for your continued support. Keep rocking and rolling guys!

The B/R store is officially back up and running—get your classic white B/R tee today!

New features are making their way to Bleacher Report, just in time for March Madness.

Many users have been asking for us to increase the possibilities when it comes to conversation and debate. Going forward, people can now reply to other users’ replies. Readers can also vote on which comments were the most worthwhile. All of this has been integrated with a slicker user interface.

Another major change for the site is the addition of scoreboards, standings, and schedules for all teams in all major sports. These are being slowly rolled out and integrated into the site.

We will be making continued improvements not only to the quality of scoreboards themselves, but also to the extent with which we integrate them into Bleacher Report. Our community will always center around great writing and thoughtful debate; that said, many of us also believe that sports news and information should be availble right here at home on BR.

As usual, any feedback on these new features would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone,

Humor articles are some of the finest pieces Bleacher Report has to offer.  Since Dave Metrick’s famous stadium re-naming satire from the site’s earliest days, readers have been able to reliably visit the humor section of the site for high quality, laugh-out-loud original concepts that will have any legitimate sports fan in stitches.

That said, we’ve started to have some major problems recently with articles that purport to be breaking news but are actually satire.  Or in some cases…purport to be satire but are in actuality mere unsubstantiated rumors.

This all came to a boiling point yesterday when this article, which claimed that a trade agreement between the Redskins and Broncos that would send Jay Cutler to Washington was near completion, was reported on by several media outlets and then addressed by Washington Redskins management.

The article was tagged on Bleacher Report with “Humor,” but for those who stumbled upon the piece via on outside source, it appeared to be the cold-hard truth.

We of course want nothing more than for Bleacher Report to attact mainstream media attention, but we strongly believe that this kind of attention is not in the best interest of our Community.  As the web’s first Open Source Sports Network it is crucial that we are seen as a legitimate editorial publication and not as a site which starts rumors via unconfirmed sources.

We are taking the following measures to remedy this problem going forward:

1) All articles that are tagged with “humor” will be more prominently labeled as such in news feeds. This is the most effective way to alert readers to the fact that a piece of content they have opened up does not contain actual news.

2) When a writer tags their article with “breaking news,” they may be asked to confirm their sources with our editorial staff. Authors that cannot provide legitimate sources will have their articles deleted. Please note that Bleacher Report will not publicly disclose your sources.

3) Any article tagged with “humor” that contains no satire whatsoever shall be deleted.  We simply don’t feel these pieces add anything to the Community given that they are both not funny and untrue.  It has never been a part of Bleacher Report’s mission to confuse sports readers.

4) We will create a “rumors” section where writers can speculate on upcoming events.  To clarify, rumor pieces that mask themselves as breaking news will still be deleted.

We are confident that these new policies will put our Community in a much better position to continuing establishing itself as one of the premiere sources for sports knowlegde and insight, while also allowing our many talented humor writers to continue working their magic.

If you have any questions about these new policies, please email me directly (zander at bleacherreport.com).  Thanks as always for understanding guys.

With four Picks of the Day in a matter of weeks, it’s safe to say that Hotnuke (who also goes by the name Daniel Barber) has blown up on the Bleacher Creature scene.In his latest piece, he advises fellow writers on the best strategies for constructing a successful B/R article.  I’m re-posting it here for the benefit of future writers looking to follow in Daniel’s footsteps.As Bleacher Report’s Community of talented and passionate contributors continues to grow, it’s refreshing to see a new hotshot (or Hotnuke, lol) extending a helping hand to his fellow writers.  This is a testament to the hard work all of you who have been around here for years have put into fostering a highly collaborative culture amongst our membership.

Huge news everybody:

Longtime Bleacher Creature Tori Willis recently found her way onto ESPN the Magazine’s website.  Her experience as a proven sports writer on Bleacher Report and active member of Arizona University’s student section made her the perfect candidate to write an expose on the Zona Zoo.

Tori was one of the first females to make a splash in the B/R Community, and we could not be more proud.  In her typically modest fashion, she’s giving us all of the credit for her big break.

This is a dream true for Tori and another great success story for our Community.  I’m confident all of you will give this young lady the congratulations she deserves on a job well done!

Hey all,

As we all wait in anticipation of Selection Sunday to start filling out our NCAA Tournament brackets, it’s time to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Let B/R be your eyes and ears with all-access coverage on-location at four of the sport’s most prestigious conference tournaments.  Follow Jameson Fleming (Big East), Justin McTeer (ACC), Tim Cary (Big Ten) and Kyle Dierking (Big 12), as they will be watching games courtside, attending press conferences and heading into the locker rooms to grab quotes for all of the biggest storylines over the next couple days.

Click on their profiles for updated stories daily, or find their links at http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball.

B/R is officially a major player in March Madness.

Aron

I just spoke with Kevan Lee, a retired Bleacher Report writer who found his voice during the days of the concept site.

Since his work on B/R, Kevan has gone on to become a copywriter for a health food supplement company. In addition to that, he is also am a freelance writer and copy editor for an online lending institution and a music magazine.  Kevan used Bleacher Report as a reference and believes it helped showcase his ability to capture an online audience.

You heard it here first: writing for B/R can lead to paid writing gigs, sports or elsewhere.