So long, Sporting News Today

If it's August it must be time for Sporting News' latest redirection.

 

And there's that, too.

 

Sure, because ESPN and SI and the rest have never launched new initiatives.
Have you seen what ESPN The Mag looks like today?
Whatever became of CNN/SI?
That's right, only Sporting News reinvents itself to stay fresh, which BYH is compelled, for reasons not only to him, to condemn.

 

I'm not condemning it. It's a fact.

What happened to CNN/SI after it dropped the CNN? Been pretty steady since then, yes?

In this discussion, ESPN The Mag is a complete non-starter. It's an afterthought in the ESPN empire. But for the sake of argument, what has ESPN The Mag undergone? A change to the theme-based issues model and maybe a slight reduction in size (I don't know, I never read it).

How about the Sporting News? First it was bi-weekly. Then it was going to redirect its efforts to turning into the newspaper you read for free every day via email. Then it was going to be the newspaper you paid to read everyday via email. On the web, it was going to be a standalone site taking on ESPN and SI.com, and then it absorbed Fanhouse and became AOL's answer to content needs. On the radio, Sporting News Radio was going to take on the big boys, and then it didn't and then it became Yahoo Sports Radio.

Sporting News has redefined itself a bunch of times and not one has come close to sticking. That's not anyone trying to pick a fight with you or anyone feeling compelled to condemn the company. It's a fact.

 

Anybody know where Jeff D landed?

 

I think I saw that he had a "consulting" job with parent company of Sporting News (before AOL merger). Sounded like he was playing out his contract.

 

The latest on the future of a SportingNewsToday-type product:


Dear Sporting News Today Loyal Subscriber:

As one of our most dedicated readers, we wanted to send a quick note of thanks for being a Sporting News Today subscriber over the past three years. Today's is the last issue of Sporting News Today in its current form, but thanks to feedback from readers like you, we have developed a new product that will take your sports news experience to a whole new level.

Launching in September, the new publication will be a FREE and completely personalized sports magazine. Based on your favorite sports and teams, we'll build a custom edition updated at 5am and 5pm ET every day and as major news happens. Each edition will include everything a real fan like you would expect - expert SN reporting, links to the best local and national sources from around the web, Twitter feeds from hundreds of athletes, teams and other sources, stats, standings and more.

As soon as it's available, we'll get you details on where and how to access it. In the meantime, log on to SportingNews.com for all the latest from Sporting News.

If you have any questions, please contact us at customerservice@sportingnews.com.

Sincerely,
Garry D. Howard, EIC
Jeff Price, President & Publisher

_____________________

 

And there's a business model that's going make 'em stand up and



(Sorry if that's a bit too negative, 2B.)

 

So an RSS-style feed into an online magazine template?

 

Sporting News one of top three magazines in online page growth.
Up 386 percent in Uniques.
Chew on that.

http://www.minonline.com/news/Vogue-com-SportingNews-com-and-Self-com-Lead-Y-o-Y-Page-View-Growth-Among-Magazines_18852.html

 

Can chew on it. Get back to me when you translate that to ad dollars. Because you may be very disappointed in the correlation.