White book

A white paper, white report or white paper is an authoritative document or guide intended to help readers understand a topic, solve or cope with a problem, or make a decision. In nbamaniacs We have our own white paper, which serves as both a guide in our mission and in explaining our medium to readers.

Before moving on to it, we remind you of our mission: NBA information without fanfare or tricks.

1. The beginning

nbamaniacs was born in February 2008 with the aim of telling the NBA in digital format as had barely been done before in the language of Cervantes. Its founder had followed the American league for three decades and always envied the amount of information and opinion that was generated about the NBA in English, which was out of reach for many people due to the simple fact of not knowing English. It was then when he had the dream of creating a medium in which he could offer information and opinion to millions of readers in Spanish, based on his passion and interest in the NBA.

That idea continued from March 2011 when a team of journalists and writers joined the project.

2. Editorial line

From the beginning the idea was clear: talk about the NBA in Spanish, telling what happened in the League independently and with truthfulness as an essential element. To this day that motto is still valid and we could say that it is more present than ever.

Transfer market rumors are a swamp in which it is relatively easy to fall (or seek to fall). We do not believe in content based on publishing the umpteenth article about a possible unreal transfer that has occurred to a certain journalist and that begins to circulate as a true rumor.

Statements are easy to take out of context, especially when there is a translation involved. A standard phrase can be turned into a scandalous headline by omitting the appropriate article, word, or subject. We don't believe in that type of content either.

Turning to the work and miracles of Michael Jordan or talking daily about Spanish players in the NBA are an interesting source of audience, but... We are not here for that to set our pace of publications.

3. The sources

We do not intend to deceive anyone. We do not have Shams Charania of The Athletic or Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN, the two journalists on whom 80 percent of the scoop information on rumors, signings, transfers and injuries is built in any international media that covers the NBA. But when it comes to reporting on a possible signing or transfer, we verify the information, provide context and reflect the sources from which that information comes, a basic principle of journalism.

4. The context

When publishing news our duty is to inform but also contribute something more. nbamaniacs It is not a medium that is dedicated to publishing articles with two sentences and little else or simply being an aggregator of other sources. We try to inform by providing context whenever possible with verified information and knowledge acquired through years of experience. Sometimes the speed necessary when publishing a news item means that it is not completely complete at the beginning, but this information is constantly updated until the news that is published for our readers is complete. Furthermore, this information is signed by the name of the editor and our media, which forces us to be accurate and truthful.

5. The matches

More than 1.200 games are played in the NBA each season. There are days of 11, 12 or even 15 games. They are marathon days that make it impossible for any editorial team to give each meeting the coverage it deserves. Even in middle America like ESPN o Sports Illustrated delegate all party reports to external agencies such as Associated Press.

That is why in nbamaniacs We do not publish news or chronicles of all the matches of each day and we try to focus on a minimum of two matches and a maximum of four or five that we report on daily. And no, we do not dislike a team if we do not talk about a game of theirs or even if there is a streak of three or four of their games in which we have not published anything about that particular team. It has even happened with the Golden State Warriors, the team that arouses the most interest in the current NBA.

And we don't hate a team either if when publishing a news story based on something that happened in a match we basically talk about a single team and almost completely omit the other; This is news not about the game, but about something directly related to the game.

6. Other topics

Aside from our main sections—News, Rumors, Articles, Draft, Market, Glossary, Statistics and Salaries—we also have two additional sections that could be classified as minor due to both the amount of content and the importance of what is published. Those two sections are Sneakers and Another NBA.

In Sneakers we publish certain launches of new or retro sneaker models, news related to sports sponsorships for players and even sometimes photographic reports on models that, as a general rule, brands send us to analyze. Our interest in sneakers sometimes leads us to create news that is categorized directly into News and not into sneakers because they encompass several current topics and not just the sneaker model.

In Otra NBA is where we usually publish the freshest, most superficial or even fun news that does not and cannot be treated as news but that is sometimes notable in the opinion of the editors of nbamaniacs.

7. Extra nbamaniacs

In 2019 we launched to the public Extra nbamaniacs, our special publication for paying subscribers. In Extra nbamaniacs we publish content differences news from any media outlet in addition to our weekly podcast. Subscribers can access content from Extra nbamaniacs on a special website or receive all publications in your email inbox. To know more about this project, click here.

8. Summer

Every summer, usually from August to the end of October, from time to time we receive messages similar to this: «nbamaniacs It is no longer what it was, nbamaniacs has lowered the level, the commentators of nbamaniacs They have lowered the level”, etc. It always happens. It is normal. The NBA in the summer, especially in August and until mid-October, usually lacks news of real impact and even, we would dare say, of real interest. Rumors tend to be repetitive, the players involved in those rumors tend to be of less media interest and most importantly, there is no competition and the important transfer period has ended in a few months. Without competition and without signings the NBA becomes a boring product.

En nbamaniacs We try to take advantage of that time for various issues such as some editors taking vacations, improving internal aspects of the website and expanding the media's archive. For example in summer 2016 we focused on statistics:

In 2017 we focused on other topics:

  • We collect data and provide context to collect all the champions in history as well as the NBA record.
  • We expand our Draft section until just before the start of the lottery; We own all the Drafts since 1984 (yes, that of Michael Jordan, Olajuwon and company).
  • We started the creation of a special page that groups together the most interesting sections of nbamaniacs, the basic articles that you need to know as well as the links to the most notable events that have occurred in the NBA during the last 10 years.
  • We began the creation of a project that has no other media in Spanish: an NBA Glossary that collects terms, norms, rules and customs that not all fans know. All this in detail with an article for each subsection.

9. Search for clicks or 'clickbait'

We want to be read. A lot. The maximum possible. But we hate the clickbait. Paradoxically, in a digital world in which tens of thousands of media compete to attract the attention of an audience that is increasingly bombarded and spends its time on social networks, we have to make an imaginative effort to capture the reader's interest. This is why on social networks we have long chosen to present our information in the comment plus news format, so that the reader can see a comment from us in addition to the headline and the beginning of that information, enough to decide if that content is interesting to them. interested or not. We are defenders of the movement #savedyouaclick.

(Unfortunately, for some people who use unofficial Twitter applications, our comment and a url appear, which can create the false idea that we are using clickbait. If this is your case, we are sorry, but we have to think about the majority and the majority uses Twitter in official applications or in the web version, places where the tweet appears in the format we are looking for without giving the image of 'clickbuster') .

We also want to note that the reader who enters a website for the first time to see a striking or scandalous headline or a meme or something ephemeral like that rarely becomes a regular reader and that is not of interest to many media outlets. Neither from the point of view of the audience since it is a reader who will not return because they have not been attracted by something of quality, nor from the financial point of view because that reader will immediately leave the page, it will generate a high bounce rate and will penalize advertising performance.

10. Comments

En nbamaniacs A strong community of commentators has been built who passionately debate daily. Sometimes that passion gets out of hand, but fortunately it rarely happens. For all this we have a series of rules that it is not a bad idea to remember. Here they are in detail, but we summarize them below:

We will delete comments or ban users if we see:

  • Insults or disqualifications.
  • Messages that incite hatred.
  • Promotional or spam links.
  • Links to illegal pages.
  • Messages intended for internal topics on the website that are not related to the news.

Precisely on this last point we make a point: There is a specific section to contact the editorial team of nbamaniacs.

It also happens that some comments stay in the moderation queue Automatic for various reasons and that is why they do not appear immediately. See more details about the automatic system here.

11. Writing standards

nbamaniacs It is a medium created in Spain and as such we publish all our texts according to the RAE standards and using the decimal metric measurement. That is why, while we try not to abuse anglicisms, we identify them by writing them in italics or with single quotes. In line with this, we remember that we use double quotes primarily to reflect literal statements and that it is convenient for the reader not to confuse one with another for a better understanding of the texts.

12. Corrections and errata policy

No medium is safe from typos and errors. It is common to see how large media outlets publish information with typos and in the least cases, errors. Even so, we believe that there is a substantial difference between the two issues.

Errata are easily fixable minor errors that barely affect the information the reader receives. A misplaced comma, a misspelled word or a translation that could be improved are examples of this. We correct typos when they are communicated to us or we are aware of them in a transparent way for the reader.

However, errors are different since an error implies that a reader may have read erroneous information, so it is essential to correct it as soon as possible and also leave a footnote that reflects that there has been a correction, indicating what the error was. error and what is the correct information. It is something we have been doing since the beginning of 2017 and we believe it is one more step in building a relationship of trust with the reader.

When we had a major slip, even for just a minute, We also wanted to record.

13. Advertising

nbamaniacs It is a medium that is fundamentally supported by programmatic advertising, that which is shown to users based on their interests. Occasionally it may offer spaces to sponsors in a way that is completely transparent to the reader. This implies that on the few occasions in which we talk about companies, products or events and it is not marked as sponsored content, it is NOT sponsored content. All the information about this section is found here.

14. The NBA in Spanish

Millions of people in countries such as Spain, the United States, Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico follow the rhythm of the NBA every day. They are fans of a certain player or a particular team, but above all they are fans of the NBA and they are interested in everything that arises around them. This is why the team that makes up nbamaniacs It offers coverage practically 24 hours a day to respond to the news interest of the NBA anywhere in the world.