It is with great pride that we talk about Rich joining the ESPN New York staff. As many of you know, Rich Cimini is a huge fan of http://JetNation.com. We took him under our wing early on and molded him into a blogger. Years ago the thought of Rich Cimini using twitter seemed outlandish. Now under our guidance, he is more than just a newspaper journalist.
Rich Cimini, you are welcome.
Back in June of 2005 we lined up Rich Cimini to do his first online chat. Although Rich seemed to struggle a bit at first we stuck with him. Rich was not used to the time requirements of the new media world. He would take several minutes to answer each question. When he started at the Daily News the printing press was in its infancy so the delay is understandable. Technology is best served in small doses. Under our guidance he evolved and learned how to respond to questions immediately. Those are the primary skills that Rich parlayed into his blog and twitter.
Rich Cimini, you are welcome.
Most sites would have moved on as the mounting criticism grew louder and louder. Not JetNation though, we stuck by Rich because we knew that he could eventually be more than a sports reporter for the Daily Planet. We are so proud of him for reaching his potential. When he was 23 minutes late for a chat we said no big deal Rich, we can work past this. He was consistently late for these chats but we never wavered.
Although he stopped doing chats here when the Daily News figured out they should copy us and do them on their own, we still remember what Rich had to say about JetNation in November of 2006:
thanks again for the invite. You guys have the best fans. I mean that.
Gotta run, folks. Great questions, as usual. You fans are great, This is still the best Jets website.
So we wish him well and although he will obviously feel an overwhelming need to thank us for everything we have done for him we say Rich Cimini, you are welcome. No thank you is necessary. Just knowing that you spent the past few years scanning our NY Jets football forum searching for new article ideas is thank you enough.