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The Golden League has had a see saw relationship with US television. Some years, it is one, some years, it is off. This year, Versus, formerly the Outdoor Life Network, has done a fabulous coup and is running the Golden League series, hosted by Tim Hutichings and Tim Story. This commentator found them perfect, but a question persists, why no publicity from USATF, the governing body of the sport in the United
States?

As your writer has been travelling, he has been struck at the bad days that baseball, the Tour de France and professional basketball are all going through, for various reasons. The Tour de France, which has truly tightened its drug testing is damned if it does,
damned if it doesn't. You know one thing, the powers that be in track and field are sure happy it is not them on the front pages!

On the warm afternoon of July 27, 2007, many of Mike's long friends and family gathered at Mission Point Park to pay their respects, and to have a little party. The weather was clear, the sun was bright, and the gathering, estimated at over 150,
gathered to pay respects to a man who has touched so many of us.

The World Shoe Association is one of the trade organizations that represents many of the players in the global footwear business. This show is held in February and August of each year. Trade shows were a huge part of this business and many other businesses over the past thirty plus years. But, times have changed...

In this article, I will try and give you a bit of a view into my job, selling advertising, and promoting our publications. For this, I go to about a half dozen trade shows, twenty or so running events around the world. Some of the events are glamorous and for a track and field fan, the meets are, well, like the Superbowl would be to a football fan! But the travel, well that will be another column.

In the past four years, I have flown an average of 100,000 miles a year. In viewing about two dozen road races, track events or marathons a year, six trade shows, and dozens of meetings with various ad agencies and advertisers, I am what one might call a frequent traveler. In this column, I will share with you some of the tactics that I use to survive on the road....

Reviewing products is part of the publishing business that can be problematic. Our system, which requires a) editor who is super focused and b) reviewer who is product geek, has worked for a dozen years now. As the publisher, I try and watch the process from afar, but as we get into production, that is just not possible.

At the current time, I oversee seven publications under the aegis of Shooting Star Media, Inc., where I am partner and group publisher. I am also President of the Running Network LLC, where I represent 34 of the finest regional and national running publications in North America. So, what is my job?

In my family, when I tell the folks a story from childhood, especially something that they did not remember or witness, it was called a confession. As someone brought up in the Catholic tradition, I find that quite ironic, but true. This series of Publishing confessions, will come and go during the year, but this is the twenty fifth anniversary of my first job in publishing, at Runners' World in Mountain View, California. Remember, this is colored by twenty five years, so beg with me. It is hard scaring up the old memories.

The following commentary was written by James Dunaway, the editor of American Track & Field and Athletes Only. James loves our sport: he has been credentialed for fifteen Summer Olympics, going to his first on a tramp steamer in 1956. He is also a keen observer of our sport. I learn from his everytime we speak, he is my mentor, he is my friend, he is a fine editor. It does not mean that we agree always, we actually have some pretty colorful arguements. I always know it is not going well we James starts the conversations off with, " Well, you are probably going to fire me now..."

One of the points we wholeheartedly agree on is how Title IX, while well meaning, is being used to destroy minor sports, which also tend to be Olympic sports. In the Wall Street Journal of August 9, 2007, a column on the destruction of six of Rutger's University's athletic traditions, including crew, was printed.

Rutgers University has produced nineteen crew Olympians. Several attempts have been made to fund the programs, yet the University board threatened to refuse the money. The seven sports cut will save $795,000. Yet, the athletic director just gave both the men's football and the women's basketball coaches raises of over $500k each-so it is not about money.

Football has become mass entertainment. Schools derive their identities from
football programs. But, in my mind, universities are supposed to be places of higher learning, where both the body and mind are educated. I remember my college football coach, the late Pat Malley, a man who won 500 football games in his career, letting football players out of practice to study, and be real students.

Please read the commentary by James Dunaway and tell me what you think!

As trade shows go, the Outdoor Retailer, in its 30th year, has evolved. This is my third time here in ten years, and each time, the show finds new ways to interact with the vendors and the buyers. Brilliant breakouts in the large Salt Palace, in downtown Salt Lake City, a city made for sports and fitness. There were Endurance sports areas, new products, even an Organic cafe for the show cognescenti! In this monograph, I will give you a view of the show, plus a true treat, a little out of the way, Euro Style dining restaurant, with wonderful service, tucked into a little hideaway in Salt Lake City!

Dear readers,

There is a song by one of my favorite songwriters, Jesse Colin Young, called, " When the Morning comes", this would have been an appropriate title for my evening.

In the spirit of giving many of my readers a first hand experience of night life in Osaka, I became a satyr for an evening of bachnalian fun. If some of my older readers remember Goteborg, and my experience at the rave, well, this should give you a bit of my experiences last night. At the age of 48, however, this type of evening will probably not be repeated, at least until Sunday night, before my departure... I hope that you enjoy the spirit with which this is shared..

This summer has been one of the best summers on record for track and field on television in North America. Combine that with WCSN.com, the Iaaf's radio and video clips, and if you have not seen a great track meet on TV this summer, then you are just plain, blind!

Every Fall and Spring, the Running Network LLC announces its award winners for the Fall and Spring Shoe Reviews. It is done with little fanfare, but it is signifigant. Cregg Weinmann and his merry band of wear testers influence over 750,000 runners and walkers and infuriate store owners in 500 running stores across the U.S. Many stores will tell you that they have very little use for the shoe review.

Yet, besides the obvious ad sales garnered as revenue from the shoe reviews, this writer, who is the person who sells those ads, thinks that there is another value from the reviews.....

Ever since Mr. Gutenberg invented movable type, the paradigm has changed. No longer were books the rights of the wealthy and priviledged. Until the mid fifteenth century, books were, for the most part, laboriously copied, letter by letter, page by page, either in some monestary or for some grandee land owner who wanted his own copy of the Bible. Gutenberg changed all of that!

In the U.S. today, there are over 12,000 special interest magazines published! Now, sixty percent of them will be gone before the end of year one! That is why, starting magazines on the web has proved so lucrative! However, lets' take a different tact for a moment? How does the web help an already established magazine? Read on!

If we agree that thare are tens of thousands of road races, cross country meets, track events held in this country each and every year. The LSB Chicago Marathon has put this issue into the news with the event from two weeks ago But what should a runner expect when they go to an event?

Over the past thirty years, I have interviewed Olympic gold medalists, Olympic coaches, athletes young and old to name a few. My first real interview after leaving Runners' World taught me much. I compare it to the main character in Johnny Cash's song, "A boy named Sue,".

Michigan Runner was one of the first regional running magazines in the U.S. Along with New England Runner, RunOhio and Running Journal, among others, Michigan Runner blazed a trail in the regional running business that should be addressed and respected.
One of the trails that Jenn and Art McCafferty have blazed is the area of web based television shows....

On Friday night, needing a break, I journeyed to Madison, Wisconsin, forty-one miles from my home of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. I wanted to see a movie at the Sundance Movie Theatre, the first of a would be chain of theatres to be built by Mr. Robert Redford. The movie I choose to see was Lars and the Real Girl and I am glad I saw it...here is why...

USA Track & Field has a rule about stopping the use of earphones on Ipods, Mp3s during sanctioned running events. Certian events have now come out and said they will not honor the rule..USATF is getting hit with questions on their policy...I think the point has been missed....

The following letter is my publishers' column for the Winter issue of American Track & Field, which mailed recently. It is on Role Models. Just last week, my sisters, my brother and I had a surprise fiftieth anniversary party for our parents in San Jose, CA. The grandkids were all there (four of them) and they were mesmerized by the stories our parents friends told them about our parent's lives...

I am now over 160 days of blogging, one hour or so a day, at least. One of my most prolific topic is Marion Jones. Earlier this week,I suggested that clearing the records and life of Marion Jones from the record book, while perhaps good to fellow competitors, allows the sport to forget who she was. I also suggested that the IAAF deleting here records was similar to Mr. Josef Stalin in the good old Soviet Union and his rewriting of
history....reader Chris Lundstrom did not agree and here, in his letter to me, which he allowed to be published, is his reasoning:

After a year of playing with the Nike plus technology, I have become addicted. It is a good addiction, as it is getting me outside more, even in this inclement weather. Sunday night,
December 9, was just such a night. I purposely picked an evening walk, so to check my neighbor's Christmas lights...the snow was cleared pretty well, and we were just about to get hit again....in snowy, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Come and join me on my walk...

Victor Conte has a fascinating past. Nearly fifteen years of not filing income taxes, guru to elite athletes on "nutrition" as early as 1989, Conte has seen it all. The former bass player for Tower of Power, Mr. Conte seems to have had a conversion, much like St. Paul on the way to Damascus...is this guy for real? And the big question we need to ask ourselves,
does the end justify the means?

It is about five pm on Wednesday, December 19. I am about 35,000 feet above the great state of Kansas as Adam, my son, and I head to Las Vegas. We are taking a few days break to celebrate my neice, Adams' cousin Tess's graduation from UNLV in accounting. Tess worked her way through college, and has achieved her goal. She was hoping we would all come out for graduation and she will have a twenty person cheering section, in english and en francais!

Pat Butcher, our world correspondent of athletics, concerns himself with Haile Gebrseslassie and his quest to break his own world record in Dubai early in
2008. Can anyone beat the man? A world record holder 23 or 24 times over,
the little Emperor showed his stuff at this past real,-Berlin marathon when he
set the new world record....

Track & field, road running, race walking and cross country are collectively known as athletics around the world. A major sport in most of the world, athletics has not been part of the revolution in media over the past decade..or has it just been overlooked?

The IAAF press release from December 20, 2007 noted that the IAAF was recongnizing
major races for their professional standards. These standards include certification of courses, media services, safety and medical standards.

This blogger welcomes the IAAF standards and sees this as a way for the IAAF and the ....

Vic Navarra was one of the grand characters that make up the tapestry called the ING New York City Marathon. Like all big city marathons that followed, the late Fred Lebow invited, cajoled, begged many of the good souls and hearts that make up the five boroughs. Vic was one of them. I met Vic through my favorite former fireman, Victah Sailer. I remember just saying hello to Vic Navarra at the various events over the years. He was unassuming, but again, one of the guys who made the event go smoothly.

When Victah told me that Vic had cancer a few years ago, I was stunned. He also told me how Vic would still be involved in the Marathon and other races, year in, year out. I felt that it was appropriate to celebrate Vic's life with a thoughtful tribute from Victor Sailer, so here it goes:

The WDW marathon is over. It is Monday morning as I take my walk over to Pleasure Island and enjoy the quiet morning. Runners are seen everywhere, wearing their WDW shirts, and their proud limping as the legs begin to recover from the weekend of pounding. The special shirts from team Goofy runners-those who did the half and the full marathons-are seen as well. 3,000 of the team Goofy runners registered!

The Running USA Meeting started on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The opening reception, sponsored by realbuzz.com, Gen A Media and Active Network was telling. Over 350 people were in attendance. Most of the attendees were race directors, companies marketing to race directors and potential sponsors of the sport.

By any standards, this was a successful opening. However, the future of the organization does hang in the balance. Is Running USA a trade organization? Does it stay patient and continue to grow at 20-25 percent a year, offering a series of meetings that are attractive to running sponsors and race directors, or does it try to be everything to everybody and dilute the attraction it is building to a certian segment of the sport?

The WSA Show is one of the most important trade shows in the footwear business. I come to this show each year, in Feb and August, with my footwear editor, Cregg Weinmann to look at new product, catch up on news in the industry and put a face with my new clients.

The WSA show is in transition. While I am always impressed with it's effort to bring in the media, it is not keeping the athletic footwear business, which has always been a small part of the business. But the show is important, and there are always some...surprises..

In a copyrighted story in USA Today, dated February 26, Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of the U.S. Olympic committee considers US athletes representing their country in the Beijing Olympics as "invited guests and not China's would be reformers." according to the story.

A direct quote from Ueberroth, " We expect and are sure that the athletes are going to respect their own country, respect their flag, respect the flag of every other countrya and operate as we all will, under the IOC rules of the Olympic Games..."

The Olympics in Beijing will be one of the great moments in modern Olympic history. The Chinese have been remaking Beijing for nearly a dozen years now, in anticipation for the coming August.

In a must-read article in April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, William Langewiesche wrote Beijing's Olympic Makeover for VF's China Dispatch. If Langewiesche's hypothesis are right, those foreigners will find a homogenized Beijing, hiding much of the truth about a Modern China.

Over my career in the sport of running, which spans, twenty seven years, there are about a dozen people that I would put on my all star team. Keith Peters would be one of them. I first met Keith in 1986, I believe, as I began traipsing around road races at the behest of the publisher of Runner's World at the time, Mike Perlis.

Here is an interview with Keith Peters, which Keith completed a week or so ago. Read his comments, check out his website. As you will see, there is alot we can do to improve how our sport reacts to the world around us.

Nike previewed their product for the 32 Olympic federations and some amazingly innovative products at their Beijing 2008 Global Summit. Over 300 media and 60 plus public relations staffers met on the Beaverton campus to drool over one amazing innovation after another. From weightlifting and taekwondo, to track & field and running, plus basketball and swimming, we in the media were treated to a sensory overload of products and innovation.

Dear readers,

Second, in less than 48 hours, I have tried the Nike sportsband in Portland, in Chicago Airport and in London, and very much like it. Here is are my notes:

Some final observations on the sport, and the marathon weekend in London. I will see you all in Boston this coming weekend!

So, I am sitting in an airport. On my way to Boston to see the Olympic Trials marathon and also the BAA Boston marathon. For fans, the Trials on Sunday and the Marathon on Monday is like running geek karma.
But, think about this for a moment, why would anyone in their right mind host an Olympic Trials? Read on...brave readers.....

As most of our readers remember, Ryan Shay was running the Olympic Trials marathon in Central Park when he collapsed and subsequently died at the age of 28. A former US marathon champion, and an NCAA champion, Ryan was one of the most popular members of the moving road show called the elite running community. He was also sponsored by Saucony.

Ryan was involved with the Saucony brand. He had spent time with the design team, cajoling them and encouraging them to develop a new cross country shoe. Upon his untimely death, the management at Saucony, from Richie Woodworth, President to Tom Carleo, Senior VP of Product, to Sharon Barbano, VP, Public Relations, considered the following question: how to memorialize an young athlete who had made such a footprint at Saucony?

Dear readers, As you know, my weekend is not complete without the Financial Times Weekend edition. Normally, I get the paper, retire to my nearest biker bar, Fat Boyz, sit down in the back booth and have a) excellent mugs of black coffee, b) breakfast, and c) no phone calls for two hours.

Rogge's comments are a warning to the West to lay off the Chinese, plus some astute historical observations on Western hypocrisy and Chinese evolution-several good points. Read one dear readers, and send me your thoughts. After my long walk on Sunday, I will respond on this very important topic, a topic that will never, ever go away: politics and the Olympics.

By all standards, the world protest over the Olympic Torch Relay was a success. The Beijing government is speaking to the representatives of the Dalai, a man they have tried to supress for nearly fifty-five years. In return, they hope, their Olympics will be viewed as the global coming out party that 1.5 billion Chinese hope for.

How should the media respond to the Beijing Olympics? Here are some of my thoughts on the process and the minefields in reporting and chronicling a different culture or
cultural experience.....

Pat Butcher, one of the most important writers in our sport, has established his blog, http://www.globerunner.org/. I think his blog is a must read and we will link to upcoming stories in the future! I review the site below.

It was about a month ago that I previewed the Saucony site with Mary O'Brien, the VP of Marketing Communications at Saucony. While the folks had waited a while to update their site, the wait was for good. Like the brand, Saucony.com is easy to navigate, well designed, illustrated well, with easy to follow links, and images that are easy to download...

adidas decided to take the promotion of their athletes into their own hands and has developed a nifty web site, www.roadstobeijing.com, which is a perfect example of how to answer the needs of media and fans. Read on for our complete review:

Here is the news bit that got me off on my newest rant:

PENSACOLA (USA): Sprinter Justin Gatlin will be not allowed to compete at US Olympic Trials starting this weekend. As Pensacola News Journal informs, he got support but no relief Tuesday from a federal judge who rescinded his order allowing the defending 100-meter champion to compete in this weekend's Olympic track and field trials. Judge Lacey Collier said that while he believed Gatlin, a graduate of Woodham High School in Pensacola, "is being wronged," he lacked jurisdiction over the U.S. Olympic Committee to determine who is eligible for the trials. The former world 100- and 200-meter champion's only recourse appears to be with the Swiss Federal Court, Collier wrote in his seven-page order. Because the Swiss based CAS made the final ruling on him two weeks ago and IAAF confirmed his ban until July 24, 2010. But per latest informations, Gatlin's lawyer said his client will go to the federal circuit court in Atlanta on Wednesday to attempt to have the latest ruling against him overturned.

And if you have not gotten enough on Day one, an absolutely thrilling start to the 2008 Olympic Trials, please check out our daily RN TV program, featuring Paul McMullen and myself. We're not Katie Couric & Bryant Gumbel, but we are okay....