I founded Lakerholics 8 years ago in an attempt to resurrect the success of the defunct LA Times Lakers Blog, one of the launching pads for the careers of journalists like Eric Pincus, Mark Medina, and the Kamenetzky brothers.
While Lakerholics enjoyed modest success, it never approached the halcyon heights of the LA Times Lakers Blog. Fortunately, it also never suffered the vicious, divisive internecine fan warfare that led the Times to close its blog. Instead, it found its niche as an online home for expats from the LA Times Lakers Blog interested in engaging in online conversations about everything Lakers while the virtual landscape surrounding it evolved and transformed.
Blogs became prolific monetized aggregators, a wave of podcasters and videographers supplanted writers, and new syndicated sports networks dominated search engines as the Internet transformed sports journalism. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the social media explosion further fragmented the market just as brand expansion and consolidation further limited creativity as Lakers fan sites grew more indistinguishable.
That was the challenge I faced when I decided to devote myself full-time to transforming Lakerholics into a new kind of online Lakers fan community that could offer a richer experience than the cookie cutter aggregator sites. I wanted to create a site that offered compelling original content, engaging online conversations, and social networking opportunities that would enable it to become a virtual home for informed, intelligent Lakers fans.
It’s taken more than six months to finish the new Lakerholics website but I believe it’s going to be a one-stop source for diehard fans to get their daily Lakers fix and enjoy unique content and interaction with like minded fans. They’ll find exceptional original content including exclusive articles, videos, and podcasts, a blog timeline with breaking news and fan commentary, a compilation of intriguing polls, and library of links to everything Lakers.
Most importantly, Lakers fans will find a beautiful professionally designed easy-to-navigate interface, a portfolio of cool social media features making it easy to participate, and a fun community with whom to enjoy their team. What’s different about Lakerholics than other Lakers sites is its members. Where other sites are driven by teams of writers and news aggregators, Lakerholics is primarily powered by its users and its best original content are the posts, comments, and conversations by and between its members.
So if you’re looking for an online community where you can meet with other informed fans and have intelligent and respectful conversations about the latest Lakers news and events, please join us at Lakerholics.com.