Photo: Hank Nuwer; Felipe Alou.

Long ago, I denounced a policy for freelancers I considered dubious by Sportcut.com. About that time, Sportcut.com and Pete Rose announced a new scheme to get him reinstated into baseball despite his gambling on baseball.

Sportcut.com collapsed despite the leadership of Charles Koppelman, Chairman of the Board

Here are news stories on that long-ago event. Hank Nuwer

October 11, 1999 SPORTS SITE NIXES MEMORABILIA POLICY Sportcut.com Wanted Writers To Collect Items by Kevin Featherly, E & P magazine A new national sports Web site found itself in ethical hot water before it even launched. Sportcut.com asked free-lance writers to collect sports memorabilia while on the beat. Collected items would be auctioned off online, with the writer and Web site splitting the revenue 50-50. Surprisingly, only one person complained. But once word of the policy got out, the site quickly rescinded its policy. Hank Nuwer, an author, sociologist and sports writer who has written about everything from the running great Jesse Owens to high school hazing, told Sportcut.com News Producer Tara Hein-Philips he saw a potential conflict of interest should journalists engage in soliciting memorabilia for profit. He got a letter back, which he found hardly satisfactory. “They wrote back and said, ‘Some think it is (a conflict of interest) and some think it’s not,'” Nuwer said, adding that the letter indicated other writers had already agreed to solicit memorabilia. “I wrote back and said I could not go ahead at all, and that I couldn’t work for them, period.” Nuwer then e-mailed his disdain to a friend, ethics instructor Steve Nash at the University of Richmond, Va. From there, the note eventually wound up on the desk of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, which on Sept. 22 publicized the prospective policy, along with Nuwer’s sharp criticism of it. Shortly afterward, Sportcut.com informed its writers that it would no longer consider using them to solicit memorabilia. “We realized it was a mistake on our part,” Hein-Philips said. “We basically felt that the policy hadn’t really been thought through, and we hadn’t really considered how people might take it. So we corrected it. When the objections were raised, we thought the policy through.” The site, which was to have made its debut Oct. 1 but is delayed in its launch, will not solicit memorabilia from writers when it goes live. It will only solicit the material through “professional collectors” and auction those items through its auction site, Hein-Philips said. While Sportcut.com changed its policy, Nuwer worries about how new Web sites might influence young journalists. Increasingly, these sites emerge as a training ground for budding writers, journalists that may not have firm grounding in the ethical issues that plague reporters.Suppose a site like Sportcut.com actually were to gather sports memorabilia by exploiting reporters’ close contacts with sources, or some other equally slippery practice? How would a young reporter come to understand the ethical conflicts, if even the bosses are unconcerned? If such behavior became widespread, what would prevent sports journalism from sliding back into an era like the 1920s, when writers were often little more than flacks for the teams they covered? “If this was 1978, I probably would have gone along with it,” Nuwer said, noting that as it happened, he was the only writer who complained about what Sportcut.com was pitching. [i.e., If this was 1978 and I was just starting out covering national sports] “I’d be thinking, this is a legal contract, doesn’t this look like it’s the right thing to do? But if there’s one thing older people can do is to kind of stand up when you have a chance to do so. Maybe now those writers who were going to go along with it will now say, ‘Whoa, I didn’t think of that.’ Kevin Featherly is a new media writer in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

_____________

Web Journalists and Their Sites Are Put to the Test on Ethics

By David Sweet

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Sept. 22, 1999 11:59 pm ET

Hank Nuwer has crafted articles about playing first base for the old Denver Bears. He’s penned a biography of Jesse Owens. But in nearly 20 years as a sportswriter, he’s never been handed an assignment like the one suggested by an incipient sports site.

Wishing to hire Mr. Nuwer as a free-lancer, Sportcut.com discussed money and expectations. But then came a surprising twist: to boost his income, Mr. Nuwer could try to procure signed jerseys from athletes such as Ken Griffey Jr. while interviewing them. If the site were able to sell the merchandise, the free-lancer would nab a 50% cut.

“I said it was unethical, and I got an e-mail back [from a Sportcut.com producer] saying, ‘Some think it is, some think it isn’t,’ ” says Mr. Nuwer, who declined Sportcut.com’s offer. “I’ll put myself in the group of ‘Some think it is.’ “

(Several attempts to reach the site producer Mr. Nuwer dealt with were unsuccessful.)

Because of the Internet’s explosion, sports sites have been saddled with ethical quandaries (though none as gruesome as whether kidneys should be auctioned online, a decision 

eBayInc. faced recently). The new technology has given birth to issues — should one be able to click to buy Joe DiMaggio memorabilia within an article about his death, for instance. Others are simply old matters wrapped in new packaging: Can a site cover a league or a player fairly when it has inked a side deal with them?

“These issues of ethics weren’t invented with the Web, but they’ve become that much stickier,” says Jerry Lanson, chairman of the department of journalism at Emerson College in Boston. “It’s so easy to put up a Web site. You’re almost returning to the press at the beginning of American history, where almost anyone could start a newspaper. But with that you get falsehoods.”

Aside from producing ESPN.com, 

Walt DisneyCo.’s ESPN Internet Ventures runs the National Football League and National Basketball Association sites. SportsLine USA Inc., who is owned in part by CBS, operates Major League Baseball’s venue and has signed “superstar” athletes, from golfer Tiger Woods to basketball giant Shaquille O’Neal, to exclusive contracts.

“I think it’s a big problem,” says Emerson’s Mr. Lanson. “Are you not going to hype the NBA? Are you not going to give them prominent play? It’s a real conflict, that’s not appearance of conflict.”

Mark Mariani, president of marketing and sales for SportsLine USA, says SportsLine hasn’t treated its superstar athletes with kid gloves.

“We were the first site to report John Daly lost his contract with Callaway,” says Mr. Mariani, referring to the troubled golfer. “We have on numerous occasions run articles that were not popular with the business side.”

Even sites which haven’t arranged special deals are beholden to developments which took place before their birth. CNN/SI Interactive, for instance, is owned by Time Warner Inc., which runs the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and the new National Hockey League expansion team, the Atlanta Thrashers.

Steve Robinson, managing editor of CNN/SI and its namesake network, says the family ties have never affected the site’s coverage.

“We’re two brand names. If we don’t maintain our integrity, then we’re kind of out of business,” he says.

The Catfish Case

When Jim “Catfish” Hunter died of Lou Gehrig’s disease recently, most big venues quickly dedicated their top news hole to numerous stories of the Hall of Famer. (Even The Wall Street Journal’s front page noted the death.) But two sites, ESPN.com and SportsLine, stuck with NFL previews.

Considering their television partners paid billions of dollars for NFL broadcast rights — and considering these sites are promoted handsomely during league telecasts — could this have influenced their story selection? SportsLine’s Mr. Mariani answers an emphatic no.

“That newsroom has 100% editorial control,” Mr. Mariani says. “Catfish Hunter is a sad story, but it’s pretty hard to upset what 80-90% of this country eats, sleeps and drinks, which is NFL football.” (Attempts to set up an interview with an ESPN.com representative were unsuccessful.)

Some baseball team sites benefit from partnerships with local newspapers, who also cover the squad they’re working with. The Los Angeles Times helped the hometown Dodgers create a 40th-anniversary section on their site. Aside from helping to produce the Royals venue, the Kansas City Star also sends beat writers to report on the team.

Chad Rader, the Internet/publications coordinator for the Royals, says the pact is essentially an advertising trade — kcroyals.com is promoted in the Star every Monday, while the newspaper obtains signage at the ballpark. Although he admits the Star’s coverage of the bumbling team has been “nice all year,” he doesn’t believe the alliance affects their reporting.

“Not at all,” he says. “The Kansas City Star’s Internet department operates separately from their news side.”

Unlike their print counterparts, sports sites can sell merchandise instantaneously from within articles. Mark Newman, who has toiled in both the new and old media, sees it as an additional revenue source.

“When John Elway retires, I think it’s justifiable to say, ‘Here’s where you go to get memorabilia,’ ” says Mr. Newman, former general manager of the Sporting News Online. “In this case more than print, the consumer drives the decision-making. If the user wants that capability, you say, ‘Why not?’ You’ve got to make revenue some way.”

CNN/SI’s Mr. Robinson, whose site has not embraced e-commerce with the fervor of others, is not as gung-ho.

“That’s a direction a lot of us are going to go in. But we have to be very careful about it,” he says.

With the Internet’s speed, issues of accuracy come into play — as well as matters of confessing to mistakes. Mr. Newman remembers debating whether the Sporting News Online should create a corrections page, especially considering the magazine itself printed retractions.

“Sites are not being accountable for mistakes; they’re reposting stories,” says Mr. Newman (the Sporting News Online, along with other major sites, do not post corrections).

Further, none of the major sports sites have formulated a code of ethics.

“We’ve been in journalism a long time, and we know what’s wrong and right,” says Mr. Robinson.

Mr. Lanson, who has taught journalism ethics courses at Syracuse University, New York University and San Francisco State University, thinks young journalists need guidance in this area.

“The last time I taught ethics, to my surprise I had a number of students who had no problem taking freebies, making money on the side,” he says. “A lot of reporters who go into an online newsroom need some foundation in why journalists need to be squeaky clean.”

Mr. Nuwer — who has donated letters received from athletes to Buffalo State College — believes he has been cleaner than clean. When it comes to asking for an autograph on the job, he’d rather face sportswriter-loathing Bobby Knight in a dark alley.

“To the best of my knowledge, as a sportswriter, I’ve never asked a player for an autograph,” he notes. “And you know, not one of ’em has asked me for one, either.”

New Sports Site Rescinds Policy After Questions Arise Over Ethics

By 

David Sweet

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Sept. 24, 1999 11:55 am ET

Faced with a policy that was considered by some in journalism to be ethically questionable, Sportcut.com announced Thursday it had rescinded the provision roughly a month before the site’s launch.

As reported in The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, Sportcut.com allowed writers a chance to earn money by procuring sports memorabilia from players. If a writer obtained a signed jersey from baseball star Ken Griffey Jr., say, during an interview, he could post it for sale on the site and receive a 50% cut of any revenue. Writers could also sell on the venue any memorabilia they had previously acquired.

“It’s a policy that never should have been in the contract,” says Scott Brown, chief operating officer of the Montclair, N.J., operation. “This is a mistake on our part. We are taking full responsibility.”

Mr. Brown, who believes the original policy was requested by one of the writers, says the person who put together the contract was no longer with Sportcut.com. He says all writers who have joined the site have been informed of the policy change.

Everyone from sports site editors to journalism professors blasted the original policy.

“The last thing a good journalist wants to do is ask someone for an autograph,” says Mark Newman, former general manager of the Sporting News Online. “It’s the most disgusting thing one can do as a journalist.”

Mr. Brown says only one writer, Hank Nuwer, complained about the provision. But Mr. Nuwer — who turned down Sportcut.com’s offer to become a free-lancer when he found out about the memorabilia policy — was vociferous in his opposition.

“I thought athletes already have a low opinion of sportswriters, and it would only go lower,” says Mr. Nuwer, a veteran sportswriter.

Sportcut.com, which looks to give users an insider’s perspective into the world of sports, is prepared to launch in October.

_____________________________________

2000: Pete Rose and Sportcut (Sportcut.com) deal controversy.

Pete Rose will help launch today an Internet Hall-of-Fame petition with www.sportcut.com, a new sports/entertainment Web site, according to USA TODAY's Mike Dodd.  Fans will be asked to go to sportcut.com to vote on
whether Rose should be allowed entry into Baseball's Hall of
Fame (USA TODAY, 11/30).  Rose appeared on CBS' "The Early Show" this morning for an 8:15 interview with Bryant Gumbel to discuss his attempts at reinstatement in MLB. 

...Following the interview,
     Gumbel said, "Let me make note here, that you can access the
     Pete Rose petition at sportcut.com."  A graphic then was shown with the Web address (CBS, 11/30).  Worldwide Entertainment & Sports and sportcut.com Chair Charles
Koppelman appeared on "Biz Buzz."  Koppelman, asked how his site will "get people's attention" with other competition:
     "It's not really a lot of competition. ... If you want to buy something in the sports world, you have specific places you can go to, ... but that's all you're going to do there. 
     If you want information and irreverent content, you've got some places to go to, but you're not going to be able to buy very much.  If you want entertainment and games in the
sports world, you've got some other places to go to. 
     Sportcut has all of the above" ("Biz Buzz," CNNfn, 11/29).

“America understands that I made some mistakes and the majority of people are willing to forgive me and let me go own with my life.” Sportcut, Pete Rose interview, 2000. “Everybody in the
world will agree that regardless of what you think I did do or didn’t do, I’ve been in the penalty box long enough,” Rose said. It’s just the American way to give you a second opportunity.”

November 30, 1999: Press Conference announcing deal by Pete Rose and Sportcut’s Charles Koppelman (photo).

“Hank Nuwer’s complaint about Sportcut.com’s provision requiring writers to pay $250 annually to retain copyright ownership led the organization to remove the contentious clause after his public criticism and refusal to contribute under those terms. This incident highlighted ethical concerns in contractual agreements between content creators and platforms.

“While the provided search results focus on Nuwer’s extensive work on hazing prevention rather than Sportcut.com, they underscore his broader advocacy for accountability and systemic change. For example, his critiques of institutional responses to hazing (e.g., questioning university presidents’ oversight in hazing cases) mirror his earlier stance against exploitative practices in media organizations. His efforts often pressure institutions to revise policies, as seen in Sportcut.com’s case.”

________________

John F. Thorsberg

Published: Dec. 3, 1999 at 3:54?p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (CBSMW) — Sportcut.com launched itself with the intensity of a Pete Rose line drive into a huge crowd of Internet fans, but the jury?s still out on whether it can parlay a public relations hit into a winning season.

Sportcut.com is a Worldwide Entertainment and Sports WWES subsidiary formed to leverage its parent company?s sports marketing and sports agent business into a popular Internet sports site.

The launch got a fantastic boost from Rose, who used Sportcut.com as the vehicle for his online petition drive for reinstatement by Major League Baseball. Rose is fighting lifetime banishment from baseball that was meted out a decade ago by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti after a sports betting scandal.

Charlie hustles 12 million to site’s opening day

Rose, who carried the nickname “Charlie Hustle,” spent most of his career as a player and manager for the Cincinnati Reds. In 24 seasons, he banged out more hits — 4,256 — than anyone in baseball history, passing the legendary Ty Cobb as the game?s most prolific hitter.

Despite his official banishment, Rose was allowed to participate with other major league heroes in festivities surrounding his selection by a fan vote as one of the top 100 baseball players of the century.

Rose?s subsequent interview with NBC?s Jim Gray, who unsuccessfully pushed him to cop to the gambling allegations, fanned the flames of public interest even higher in a controversy that has now moved onto the Internet.

So, it was a cagey move by Sportcut.com to use Rose as the leadoff hitter for its site, which recorded 12 million “hits” on day one.

Registration is the golden key

Sportcut.com is collecting names and other data from every visitor who comes to the site and fills out the “official” Pete Rose Reinstatement Petition. That effort netted more than 500,000 registrations and the database of sports fans continues to grow as the promotion runs through the end of January.

That kind of user data is golden on the Web, where knowing your audience and its attitudes and being able to communicate with them are big keys to success.

“Candidly, as we approach this, we know that Pete Rose is an irreverent sports legend,” said Charles Koppelman, Sportcut.com?s chairman. “That really speaks to what Sportcut is all about. Pete is going to be one in a series of monthly significant events that will drive eyeballs and attention to the Sportcut site.”

The name of this game is promotion, and the vision of Rose chatting with David Letterman and giving an interview to Larry King — both appearances are in the works — doesn?t diminish that in the least.

Does a Roseless site have staying power?

The question now is whether the site has staying power.

“We can drive eyeballs to Sportcut today, but we?ve got to have real business behind it to keep them there,” said Koppelman, the former chairman and CEO of EMI Records Group North America, a subsidiary of EMI Group EMIPY.

It?s way too early to be talking seriously about things like an IPO for the fledgling subsidiary. Or is it?

“What would someone value Sportcut today? Seventy million, $60 million, $100 million, $40 million,” Koppelman asked. “Whatever it is, it?s some number that wasn?t in effect or even taken into consideration on the WWES balance sheet two days ago.”

The huge online interest in sports brings with it huge competition. Vying for fan eyeballs are TotalSports.comTSPT, ESPN Sports Zone, CNN/Sports Illustrated, USA Today Sports, Sportsline.comSPLN and hundreds of niche sites seeking a share of the audience and the resulting e-commerce payday.

E-bucks may have draw

The Pete Rose promotion, and other exclusive content from client athletes, is not the only card that Sportcut has to play.

WWES CEO and Chairman Marc Roberts said his site offers the expected features — sports equipment sales and memorabilia auction options, message boards, and online games — plus special touches like “e-bucks” and opportunities to interact with WWES clients like heavyweight challenger Shannon Briggs and All Pro receiver Antonio Freeman of the Green Bay Packers.

“E-bucks is a currency on the Internet that fans can get just for logging on to our site. They can play games on the site and win more e-bucks. There will be a quiz of the day, and you can get e-bucks on that too,” Roberts said.

The plan is to allow visitors to use e-bucks to buy merchandise on the site, and also to make purchases at bricks-and-mortar partners — as yet unnamed.

__________________________________

Sportcut.com Timeline

September 1999: Hank Nuwer launches protest against Sportscut’s announced policies in advance of site launch.

October 1: Facing criticism over its policies, Sportcut.com delays launch 60 days.

December 1999: Sportcut claims 12 million on the opening day of the site.

2000-2001: Sport.cut.com is no longer online and is formally abandoned June 15, 2001.

2001-06-15

ABANDONMENT – NO USE STATEMENT FILED

2022 Sportcut’s executive Charles Koppelman dies at age 82.

2025 Update: Sportcut.com is offered for sale by GoDaddy as a domain name.

2024-2025. Pete Rose’s ban from baseball continues despite his pleas for reinstatement. Rose dies September 30, 2024.

Quotation: Sportcut.com’s Tara Hein-Philipps repudiated the policy to reporter Kevin Featherly and said: “I can assure you there’s no chance of returning to that policy.”

See below from Editor & Publisher mediainfo.com.” … “[Sports.cut.com’s scheme] “was absolutely the wrong thing to do,” said Hank Nuwer, an author and sports writer.

2025: The Athletic prints an article on Swag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6270334/2025/04/11/what-do-mlb-players-do-with-their-stuff/ It goes well beyond the on-field uniform. There are team-issued alternate hats and warmer winter hats, long-sleeved dry-fit shirts and endless T-shirts and hoodies. There are shorts and sweats, spring training gear and playoff gear, and every year the looks change — and that’s just the start. Companies who want to advertise their (typically unlicensed) wares often send free packages to players. Team mantras and inside jokes have a way of finding themselves onto clothing, too. And then there are the team’s fan giveaways …. Big leaguers also have equipment deals for cleats, gloves, batting gloves and, of course, more clothing.

May 13, 2025

MLB reinstates Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, making them Hall of Fame eligible

May 13, 2025

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred reinstated Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, making both eligible for the sport’s Hall of Fame.

1. VARIETY

Jun 21, 2000 12:00am PT

WWES growing with Gutkowski

New prez/CEO ups Koppelman to chair

Worldwide Entertainment & Sports (WWES), the New York-based sports management and marketing company, has hired Bob Gutkowski as its president and CEO.

Gutkowski’s first move as president was to elevate Charles Koppelman from a board member of WWES to chairman of the board. Marc Roberts has resigned as chairman, president and CEO of WWES.

Stretching domain

At WWES, Gutkowski, 52, says one of his goals is to push the company into production, not only of sports programming but of music and entertainment programming.

Gutkowski says he took the lead in getting the company he founded in 1995, the Marquee Group, to expand beyond sports into movies, TV shows and records by purchasing such companies as Tollin-Robbins Entertainment (the movie “Varsity Blues” and the HBO series “Arli$$”) and Alphabet City Records. Gutkowski sold Marquee to SFX Entertainment in 1999 for more than $100 million.

Hockey plan iced

Before Marquee, Gutkowski was president of Madison Square Garden from 1991 to 1995. In the last year or so, Gutkowski and Koppelman tried — and failed — to put together financing to buy the New York Islanders hockey team.

Koppelman has spent most of his career in the music business, serving in such posts as chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing and SBK Records (1989-92) and chairman and CEO of EMI Records Group, North America (1993-97).

Gutkowski says he’s high on the two Web sites that WWES owns: Houseofboxing.com and Sportscut.com. He also plans to oversee creation of a new name and logo for WWES and to look for acquisitions to expand the company’s base.