Steve Davidson, Editor in Chief of one of paintball’s most popular news sources tells all in the first of another two part interview. I hope the readership of The Catshack Reports is enjoying learning more about the people and organizations that have and are continuing to make paintball great.
Just about everyone knows about 68 Caliber News but not so much its Chief Editor Steve Davidson Steve would you mind sharing a few facts about who Steve Davidson is?
‘Steve’ started playing in 1983, formed one of the first national competition teams in 1984 (Muthers of Destruction – you can see us listed in Bill Barne’s book) took first in it’s first event, a 4th at the 1984 PBGA PMI-Skirmish National Championship; I leaped into tournament play after that, eventually ending up as the founder and manager of the Werewolves of NJ/PA (15 man ball) that was ultimately voted one of the Top 50 Teams of All Time by PB2X magazine a few years ago (and, toot, toot, I was also voted a Top 100 Player of All Time by PGI magazine back in 1999).
Along the way I started writing for APG in 1986, founded the NPPL in 1992 (serving as the coordinator for the ‘93 and ‘94 seasons and League secretary in 1996), created the first national amateur series (GTO) with then partners Biff Thiele of the SOBs and Ron Howell of Nemesis, created and received a patent for a made-for-tv format called USPL (which ultimately became X-Ball), wrote the base rules most use today, designed the seating and scheduling structures many use today, scoring structures many use today, wrote a couple of books on the game, designed some gear and managed to get in a few games along the way.
When did you first get into the publishing business?
Oh – ages ago. I got a grant from my university to produce a semi-professional science fiction magazine back in the late 70’s; I’ve always written and am now writing more than ever.
Along about 91/92 I did a short-lived magazine for paintball called Paintball Retailer with National Paintball Supply. It was way ahead of it’s time – looking at things from an industry perspective rather than a consumer perspective and we did many of the things that Amodea at Paintball X3 is doing now (John’s a good friend) – stuff like polling retailers across the country to see what’s selling, predicting industry trends, looking outside the industry to other business resources as models.
Who started 68 Caliber News and when did it first go online?
A guy named Bryan Gilchrist did. It’s always been online. My understanding is that Bryan thought that more – in terms of news coverage – could be done with a website. This was (I’m guessing a bit here) back when WARPIG.com was about the only online resource for paintball.
Then, a number of years later, Gilchrist brought in Dale Ford who was doing his FBRadio online show. Dale interviewed me for his show and eventually, over time, he used me as a resource.
A few years after that, Gilchrist decided he wanted to do other things and Dale suggested that he sell to my wife and myself.
(BTW: Karen – my wife – has a long history with paintball as well: for a number of years she was the production manager for Paintball News.)
What we did do with 68Caliber – was to bring a greater sense of journalistic sensibility to things. The expression I like to use is “politics and personality stop at the office door” meaning: I may have friends or personal preferences or opinions of things, but when it comes to what goes up on the site, if it’s paintball and appropriate for a family-audience, it gets published, regardless of the source.
We also managed to establish 68Caliber as an advertising venue: prior to that it was more of a ‘for the love of’ kind of enterprise and sold no advertising. (Dale has since moved on and the site is operated entirely by my wife and myself)
Two pronged question A) Have you achieved your vision of what 68 Caliber News was intended to be? B) What areas of 68 Caliber would you still like to improve upon if any?
A: Mostly. B: not so much improve as add to.
We’ve got a few – I’ll call them “pet peeves” that I want to see addressed; we are, for example, bound and determined to stay away from forums on the site. There’s plenty of coverage for that kind of thing from other folks and some of them do an outstanding job. We have comments available for each story – and a regular feature we call Forum Watch, where Scott Fertita (from the BigEvilOnline forum) covers the top stories from a selection of forum sites. I’d like to see more readers use the comment section.
I’ve tried to encourage more participation and cooperation between the forum sites and 68Caliber – I’ve asked a number of them to send in weekly highlights for example – the ‘hot threads’, if you will, but haven’t received much response.
I’d also like to see more video clips on the site and have asked a number of video companies to take advantage by sending in teaser clips or excerpts, but again – little or no cooperation – everyone is busy, busy, busy.
I also seem to have had a bit of trouble conveying to folks in the industry – from the individual player on up – that 68Caliber is a resource for them – especially for the folks who have little or no voice in the industry. Take a look at the site: some of the big boys (Kee, Tippmann, PSP to name a few) and some of the smaller organizations (CFPS, MPS) have realized that if they send material in on a regular basis, it will go up on the site – so they take a few minutes each week to make sure that their name stays out there. It doesn’t have to be a big story or even unique – the key is consistency. “Bill bought a new gun this week, the team is playing in a local event next week” – that kind of thing.
We do want to hear more from teams, anyone can submit an article (be it fun, informative, opinion, whatever) we’re happy to get pictures – in short, 68Caliber offers an easy path to getting your message out in front of a national audience – so take advantage of it.
End of Part One
So now we have a good glimpse behind the scenes of 68 Caliber News from the history and on to the other doings of its editor Steve Davidson…stay tuned as there is more to come.
If you wish to get in touch, please email the staff at Editor@68Caliber.com
