Introducing Quickish, quick-hit sports news for a caffeinated nation

It’s fitting that Quickish — longtime consumer developer Dan Shanoff’s new sports Internet venture — debuted at just about the same time as the BCS Title Game showdown between Oregon and Auburn. Quickish, says Shanoff, is “the news version of Chip Kelly or Gus Malzahn’s up-tempo no-huddle offense — that seems fitting right now. Plus it lets me hedge no matter which team wins.” With online media reaching terminal velocity, the all-inclusive, quick-hit news format makes a lot of sense. And that’s what Quickish is; a sports news feed that tops most other sites in terms of velocity, frequency and function.

“People have made it clear how they want to stay updated: Fast,” Shanoff told us. “Quick to know something happened, quick to access the best of what is being said, quick to consume, quick to recognize if something is worth their time. Quickish is built for them.”

Quickish is built on “tips” — editor-curated bits of news from a number of sources, among them Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and individual readers themselves.

“We are at the front end of the ‘tip economy,’” Shanoff said. “Information that does a few things at once: It quickly offers you value, it points you to something more if you want it, it gives credit where it’s due and it has the authority and authenticity of someone you trust passing it along.

“The current focus is sports — for obvious reasons, like that’s my comfort zone, and non-obvious ones, like the idea that a lot of online media innovation has been paced by sports, because of sports’ own rhythms and structures. And to apply this system that I have built to sports news, in the hopes of satisfying some critical mass of fans in a way that complements the rest of their sports-news diet.”

The thing about Quickish that stands out the most for me at the outset is the editors’ recognition that comedy relief is important. Mixed among the hard news are tweets and quotes from the lighter side of sports, which prevents Quickish from becoming a boring, gray tickertape and gives it some life. Example:

BREAKING NEWS: Michigan has changed its name to Missedigan Darren Rovell (via Twitter) , after Michigan was snubbed by LSU’s Les Miles.

Anyway, welcome to the neighborhood, Quickish. A couple of tips: Stay off of Florio’s lawn (he gets cranky), and if you see Brooks’ dog out running loose, bang some pots together and he’ll go home.

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Quickish [Official site]