In early 2019, we got a bit lucky with Wingspan media coverage. An editor for the New York Times happened to preorder the game from us, and they were so delighted by it that they arranged for an article about Elizabeth Hargrave and Wingspan. The article went live in March 2019.
Having seen the coverage in the NY Times, a flood of non-gaming media outlet requests followed (many of which are linked here). I’m sure there’s a journalistic term for this phenomenon: The game became newsworthy as a result of the news deciding it was worthy.
This came to mind recently while watching an interesting video sent to me by a book publishing friend, Todd Sattersten. The video is primarily about digital games, but the ladder concept described by Chris Zukowski applies to tabletop games too.
The idea is that if you can get media coverage even once, you can use it to get coverage elsewhere. This is particularly powerful if you can pair the coverage with some sort of publicly visible metric (i.e., the BoardGameGeek hotness or a prelaunch subscriber count). For example, if you can get the Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast to mention your game, you can then use that coverage to get the BoardGameCo to cover your game. Then use that coverage to get the Dice Tower to cover it, and so on.
This is only helpful if you know media outlets for tabletop games, so I asked Stonemaier Ambassadors where they get their tabletop gaming news. Here’s what they said (in no particular order). Some of these channels feature other content too (like reviews), but I’m specifically referring to news about tabletop games:
- Roll for Crit
- BoardGameCo
- The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast
- Babylon Games
- Man vs Meeple
- Tabletop Gaming News
- Gaming Trend
- Dice Tower News
- Watch It Played News
- Board Game Wire
- Betterboardgames
- Critical Fail
- Brettspiel Box
- BoardGameGeek News
- ICv2
- Dicebreaker
- Polygon
- Kotaku
- The Mill (this is Stonemaier specific)
What do you think about this ladder approach? Also, if you are a member of the media and you cover board game news, please let me know so I can add you to this list.
Also, while we’re on the topic of media, I coordinated another chat about publishers, reviewers, media, and audiences, this time with Danni Loe (Hachette Games), Anne-Marie De Witt (Fireside Games), Helaina Cappel (Burnt Island Games/KTBG), Isaac Vega (Rose Gauntlet Games), and Jason Perez (Shelf Stories and the One-Stop Co-op Shop); I’ve embedded the video below (also see link here). It was a great follow up to last-week’s conversation about similar topics.
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Also read: An Open Letter to Non-Gamer Journalists Researching Modern Tabletop Games
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12 Comments on “The Ladder Approach to Media Coverage”
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Jamey,
This seems so obvious, but in practice it’s absolutely true. Now, the reverse of this phenomenon is also true. If a publisher or designer doesn’t get that initial contact, break, lightning in a bottle, than an excellent game may fly under the radar for years, if found at all. I know that you consider yourself very fortunate to have had this happen (and you should), but in your case, I would suggest too that you’ve built a company around an ethos…not a game. Yes, Scythe and Wingspan have done exceptionally well, and probably leagues better than many of Stonemaier’s other titles.
But, the story of Stonemaier and the track record of Stonemaier I believe has a great deal to do with your access to the “ladder” in the first place. Your underlying remise s very true…however, it’s true for only a small sliver of games that come out every year.
Cheers,
Joe
I agree about the ethos, Joe–I’m glad we have a variety of games that bring joy to people, not just one. :)
So true! I got media coverage on Dicebreaker and Polygon for our fan-made Gloomhaven expansion, Crimson Scales. That got us loads of interest from boardgame media who might not normally look at fan expansions like Dice Tower, Beasts of War and Shut Up & Sit Down.
If you have a good story, contact various news media – often they’re looking for fun stories and are happy to feature boardgames
That’s awesome, Nick!
Interesting enough, you video on Le Plateau, as quick as it was, had some push of those sales. Being a very niche game it was really neat to see on your channel, and great the Browncastle got a few extra sales.
That’s great, Michael!
Having previously worked in content media (back before I had a family to feed), I can say the ladder approach is indeed 110% effective. As much as it is gratifying to be the first publication to feature a completely unknown product/artist/etc, theres no worse look for your publication than being the only ones not covering that new hot thing. Almost as bad is being the last one on the bandwagon.
Any even remotely successful publication has more submissions for reviews than they can possibly feature – so editors have to constantly ask the question “why should I feature this?” Usually the most effective answer is “because other people are.”
Thanks Luke! I’m glad to hear it works, and I like the logic of “because other people are.”