About Crossing Broad & Contact Us
Table of Contents
FAQ
What is Crossing Broad?
Crossing Broad is Philadelphia’s irreverent sports blog, founded by Kyle Scott Laskowski in 2009. You could say that CB began as a baseball blog, with a heavy focus on the successful Phillies teams of that era. Over the next half-decade, Kyle (aka The Maestro) continued to cultivate an independent site with a unique voice and fan-first perspective on Philadelphia sports and media coverage. Crossing Broad ultimately branched out into podcasting, apparel, and numerous other areas while growing an audience of several million readers.
In 2017, Kyle brought on a pair of investors to advance the site and add to the staff, which saw a half dozen writers join the fold. A little less than two years later, when the Supreme Court removed the road blocks for legalized sports betting, Laskowski leaned on his experience in digital and affiliate marketing to build a brand-new business model, resulting in XLMedia acquiring the site in a multi-million dollar deal.
Who runs the site now?
Kevin Kinkead is the site editor. Kyle Pagan is a full-time contributor and the rest of the staff includes Bob Wankel, Russ Joy, Anthony SanFilippo, Coggin Toboggan, and Tim Reilly.
Is this a sports journalism website?
Not really. We’re a blog. Our bread and butter is tongue-in-cheek riffing on the sports matters of the day. That can come in many forms, be it straight reaction, aggregation, column writing, and listicles. We use a lot of satire and snark and a good portion of what we write is flippant and goofy. Sometimes people are not aware of this and think we’re being serious, so we try to be obvious when we’re joking around. We don’t take ourselves too seriously because sport is supposed to fun and not some self-important big J exercise in reinventing the wheel. If you had a laugh, but also learned something, then good, because that’s the goal.
But you sometimes do real journalism, right?
Absolutely. Most of our guys have journalism, writing, and teaching backgrounds. Anthony has broken numerous Flyers stories over the years, like the lawsuit filed by trainers against the team. Kevin gets the occasional scoop and has authored several deep dives on local news media, examining the inner workings of The Philadelphia Inquirer and NBC Sports Philadelphia. We do a running series of branded columns as well, such as the award-winning “50 Hot Takes.”
Do you only write about sports?
No, we cover other topics that Philly sports fans might find interesting. Beer, music, pop culture, etc. Pagan does his “man on the street” videos as well, which take him all over the region.
Do you guys cover the teams in person?
We have credentials for all of the teams but we are not at every game. We don’t have full-time beat writers like most corporate media outlets, and while it’s important to keep up a part-time presence for credibility purposes, our brand isn’t heavily reliant on in-person reporting or quote gathering.
Why do you keep writing about Carson Wentz and Ben Simmons? It’s time to move on and let it go.
Let what go? Site traffic shows that readers are interested in keeping up with high-profile former Philadelphia athletes.
Why share commentary from Colin Cowherd/Skip Bayless/other talking heads? They’re just looking for attention.
Perhaps, but part of what we do is keep tabs on mainstream and local media and point out who’s authentic and who’s not. It’s important to call fraudulent behavior what it is. Plus, attention is not currency. These guys aren’t taking Crossing Broad articles and bringing them to contract talks. The people who say that “all publicity is good publicity” are wrong, because if everyone thinks you’re an idiot, then congratulations, all you’ve done is successfully grabbed the lowest-hanging fruit from the sports media tree.
Why do you go after certain people?
See above. If they’re frauds, like Howard Eskin or Angelo Cataldi, then they should be called on it. There are a lot of people in sports media who spread fake news and/or hide behind some disingenuous acting job.
What is RADIO WARS?
RADIO WARS is a brand that Kyle started back in the day to document the ridiculous back-and-forth between WIP and 97.5 the Fanatic talent. The height of RADIO WARS was 2015, when Josh Innes and Tony Bruno were continually butting heads with Mike Missanelli and absurd, childish behavior was the daily norm. We still do RADIO WARS stories these days, but obviously the WIP/Fanatic thing is much less contentious than it used to be. We know most of those guys personally and write more about the inner workings of Philly radio.
Reviewing Sportsbooks and Online Casino Apps
The editorial team at Crossing Broad and XLMedia has combined decades of experience in the regulated online sports betting and online gaming markets in the U.S. The team has used dozens of apps across the various legal and regulated markets within the U.S. and Pennsylvania and has logged thousands of hours of usage (and thousands of bets and plays across these hours).
We often review and provide information about the regulated, online sportsbook and iGaming operators in order to serve our users looking for trusted information. While we do work with and partner with online sportsbook and casino operators and can occasionally be compensated for them in exchange for promotion and marketing services, our reviews are complete with unbiased and independent information aimed at best serving our Crossing Broad users.
If you have any questions or comments regarding how we review third party products, websites and apps, please feel free to contact us.
CONTACT US
Have a question, comment, tip or advertising inquiry? Contact Crossing broad at [email protected].