SB Nation soccer editor and blog manager, Jeremiah Oshan, gives us a glimpse of what sports journalism is like in the United States, especially in the MLS (soccer league), where it faces competition against more established leagues that are considered the best in the world.

Jeremiah also provides background the future of SB Nation, his career to date and the MLS.

 

Podcast Transcription

Vahe Arabian: Welcome to the State of Digital Publishing Podcast. State of Digital Publishing is an online publication covering media technology trends, perspectives, and news for online publishing and media professionals. We help audience developers better develop audiences by encouraging others and sharing their knowledge, experience, and practical advice, and acting as a bridge to the gap between startups and established professionals. I've got with me today, in episode two of our podcast with Jeremiah Oshan, MLS editor from SB Nation. Welcome, Jeremiah.

Jeremiah Oshan: Hey. How are you doing?

Vahe Arabian: Good. How are you?

Jeremiah Oshan: I am good.

Vahe Arabian: Thanks for joining us.

Jeremiah Oshan: Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure.

Vahe Arabian: Awesome, that. How's the week in MLS? How's everything in MLS going this week?

Jeremiah Oshan: So, we just had ... We have a playoff system here, as you may know, and we just started the playoffs, and there were some interesting games, for sure. We had a couple big blow-outs, and then a couple matches that went to overtime actually were scoreless going into overtime. Lots of interesting storylines going on in MLS right now.

Vahe Arabian: That’s fine. I believe you're a Seattle fan? I forgot, sorry, I forgot the team name at the moment, but I read that you were….

Jeremiah Oshan: The Sounders, yeah. I'm in Seattle, and I root for the Sounders.

Vahe Arabian: Awesome! How are they? Are they on the top of the leaderboard, or where are they sitting at the moment?

Jeremiah Oshan: Yeah. So, they were finished second in their conference meaning they didn't have to play in this round that we just finished, and they're now going to be playing one of their big rivals in the next round.

Vahe Arabian: Cool. Well, fingers crossed for Seattle.

Jeremiah Oshan: Yes.

Vahe Arabian: Awesome! So, now with the podcast, if we could just start off with your background and just a bit about SB Nation, just so we can introduce you to the audience, that'd be great.

Jeremiah Oshan: Yeah. So, I got my start in media, you know, I took a pretty traditional path to getting into media. I went to journalism school in college, I worked in newspapers for about 10 years in sports sections and news sections, I was a beat reporter for a while, I was a columnist for a while, I was a sports editor for a while, I was a copy editor, and then I was, like, a front-page designer. So, I did a lot of things in the newsroom, and then I moved to Seattle, I quit my newspaper job, and basically just started from the bottom in terms of the digital media world. The timing ended up being very fortuitous when I did that. But I started writing for the local Sounders blog, and then I kind of worked my way up the chain at SB Nation, and now I'm actually in charge of all the ... I oversee all of our soccer blogs. We have about 60 soccer blogs that cover teams all over the world.

Vahe Arabian: And is that soccer blogs individual contributors that just write about specific leagues around the world?

Jeremiah Oshan: So, most of them, the vast majority of them are team-specific. So, we have an Arsenal blog, we have a ... All the big ... Almost all the big clubs in the world, we have a blog that covers them specifically,