On The Banks State Of The Site Update

We are exactly three months from the start of the 2018 season kicking off for Rutgers football and although summer hasn’t officially begun, it feels as if its well underway. Other than the Rutgers men’s track and field team sending five athletes to the NCAA Championships next week, the rest of the 2017-2018 athletic season is now complete. I gave my take on the current state of the Rutgers athletic department in this article earlier this week. Today, as managing editor of this site, I thought it was a good time to touch base with all of our readers about the current state of things at On The Banks and give some insight about were we are headed in the near future.

First and foremost, we strive to be the premier Rutgers fan site and are proud to be part of the SB Nation family. I’m biased, but I think the collection of Big Ten sites across the SB Nation network is pretty good overall and offer a unique perspective for all of our respective fan bases. We have worked with many in the past and plan to continue conducting Q&A’s with those sites throughout the year to get their fans perspective ahead of matchups against Rutgers.

While sports media has undergone rapid changes in recent years, sites like ours have been part of the evolving landscape. As managing editor, my goal has always been to produce a professional product but from a true fan perspective, offering unique takes. We will always prioritize the written word above all else. We also attempt to cover as many Rutgers sports and topics as possible. Our team of contributors are volunteers and do this because we all love Rutgers. We may not get to every news story or comment on everything, but it will always be our intent to do so. Every team and student athlete at Rutgers deserves that from us, many of whom are proud alumni.

With that being said, the ultimate goal is for On The Banks to provide Rutgers fans with the most genuine and comprehensive coverage out there. We continue to gain access to Rutgers sports over time and will be careful to showcase the teams and athletes with a unique and genuine view. We want to continue to call it like we see it as well. The good news is there is a lot to be positive about with the long term future of Rutgers athletics right now.

It also means that as a site we want to offer a brand in multiple forms. We have long had a presence on social media through our facebook page and Twitter account. Recently, we created an Instagram page, which will allow us to share original photos and videos at sporting events from a fans point of view. We also can make comments or highlight certain news stories in a different way.

We hope that you follow us on all three platforms, as its just another way to experience our site. From live blogging during Rutgers games, sharing official news and videos from the athletic department directly, or giving hot and hopefully sometimes, half funny takes on things happening that particular day.

In addition, we’ve begun posting videos on YouTube in the past few months and will formally be creating our own channel soon. My favorites so far have been postgame reactions after the Seton Hall win and Big Ten Tournament run for men’s basketball, as well as our baseball writer David Anderson’s thorough midseason review. We want to continue to build our video content in the coming months to grow our reach to the Rutgers fan base and showcase our contributors another way.

I’m very excited to announce that we are also finally entering the podcast game. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I wanted to find the right person to lead us down that path first. I’m thrilled to have added Lance Glinn, recent Rutgers graduate and now former Sports Director for WRSU radio. Lance is the right guy to lead us and has great vision of how to continue producing On The Banks content in a way thats unique to us. Our focus, as always, will be on the Rutgers sports teams themselves and provide the best in-season and offseason coverage possible. We’ll feature our own contributors, as well as featured guests related to Rutgers and Big Ten opponents. Our first podcast will be out June 6th and we’ll be posting it on multiple forums.

Also this summer, our David Anderson is heading up a weekly series for Rutgers football that offers polls to vote on various topics, both from the past and the present. We also are working on having more regular round table articles among our staff to generate creative and interesting coverage during the slower summer months.

With all that being said, I’m always looking to improve our coverage and the site in any way possible. All feedback is welcomed and I love when readers and fellow fans reach out to me directly. I can be reached at breitmanaaron@gmail.com .

Overall, I’m proud of what the site has become and excited about where we are headed. We hope you look at On The Banks as a passionate and mostly positive forum where Rutgers fans can interact with each other. Whether to celebrate, commiserate, or share different opinions and perspectives. I’m a firm believer in enjoying the journey as a fan. Being a Rutgers fan has been a labor of love at times over the past decades, but it really does feel like the athletic department is starting to turn a corner, in a substantial and lasting way. I feel fortunate to lead our site’s charge in covering Rutgers sports during this exciting time in the school’s history. Our reach across the Rutgers community has grown year over year and we will continue to challenge ourselves in providing the best coverage possible. Thank you for all of you that have supported us, encouraged us, and most importantly, read us over the years. The root of On The Banks is producing great content for the fans, done so by fans themselves.

Sincerely,

Aaron Breitman

Managing Editor, On The Banks