As you may or may not have noticed, the name "corn blight" no longer graces this site. Instead, he, it, "corn blight" has been replaced by my real name, Jon Johnston. I thought about doing this a while back but have kept putting it off until now. I owe you an explanation for the change, so here goes.....
A lot has happened over the past couple of years. Countless newspapers have gone out of business while others continue to struggle. To their credit, newspapers and other media sources fought back by creating their own blogs. It was a damned good business move. In doing so they blurred the lines between the content they create and those of us who are not journalists by trade. Bloggers fought back by becoming more respectable with many becoming credentialed and - dare I say it - gaining access to the press box. Bloggers like Brian Cook at mgoblog, Spencer Hall at EDSBS, Peter Bean at BON and Matt "Dr Saturday" Hinton are amongst the most read college football writers around. They're widely read because they're good, not because they're part of established media organizations.
Husker bloggers have faired well. In the last two years, I've edited a Nebraska football yearbook to which Husker Mike and the guys at BRN have heavily contributed, so we can no longer be considered in the amateur category as sports writers. I've done a weekly radio spot this season every Friday morning with Steve King at KKCD in Omaha, and done interviews on a number of other radio stations around the country. I even write a Husker sports column for a Nebraska weekly newspaper, the Arbor State in Wymore. (Shameless plug: If you're an editor of a weekly in Nebraska, please contact me if you're interested in Husker content.)
I don't really care if I'm referred to as a blogger, a writer, or whatever else you'd like to use. (Was it Kierkegaard or Dick Van Patten who said, "If you label me, you negate me?") It doesn't matter. What does matter is that Husker fans find us interesting and have some fun while they're here. We're doing all right on the interesting part as CN has continued to grow to up over 20,000 unique vistors per month. That growth will continue as more Husker fans find us and SB Nation creates more partnerships with regular media sites who are looking for more content.
If I had to relate "fun" to something it's the unique capabilities that the SB Nation platform gives our members. Fans can become part of the CN community, create their own content with the fanposts/fanshots, and join in our game day threads. We've done a lot better in this area, but obviously there's still room for growth.
The one other area in which we need to improve is credibility. That's the biggest reason for the name change. Husker Mike and Jlew don't have the same problem as me. Their monikers are at least a close proximity to their real names. Me, well, let's just say "corn blight" is a long way from "Jon Johnston" and while it wouldn't take much to relate the two most people don't do it. They especially don't do it if they see it on a headline when scanning through Google News or any other web site. Bottom line - it's time for me to use my own name
The site name will stay because the original reason for it's creation remains. The site was born during the dark days of the Steve Pederson/Bill Callahan regime. Nebraska football wasn't much fun then, and Husker fans were tearing each other apart over the reasons for the Huskers demise (many still are, apparently it's hard letting go). Husker football is something we all love and therefore "Corn Nation" was chosen as a reminder that one should keep a sense of humor when dealing with the subject.
I think that's enough for now. Like I said, I feel like I needed to explain myself. Next up, I really need to get a better profile picture, don't I?