According to the Official Google Blog, Google is now offering “up-to-the-minute sports
scores and schedules” via cell-phone text messaging — just in time for the
NCAA college basketball tournament.
In yet another instance of a major tech company moving into the
content-delivery realm, this move puts Google’s service directly in
competition with services provided by some news Web sites, such as KUsports.com.
How does a news organization compete?
First, realize that sports scores and schedules are a commodity. Also, focus on what your organization can provide that Google can’t: local expertise and flavor. Offer player-specific SMS updates written by beat reporters. Get writers to distill the essence of the game into bite-sized text messages, and send ’em out a couple of times per half. Go beyond bland numbers and provide tenderly crafted value.
Google can automate the publishing of numbers and dates, but it can’t (and,
from what I can tell, doesn’t want to) automate human judgment. Exploit that.
