ESPN.com "hyper local" expanding to Dallas, LA, NY

[SockPuppet]

Haven't seen anything posted on this yet. This guy has a pretty interesting take on the whole deal.

http://www.danshanoff.com/2009/07/espncom-vs-local-newspaper-sports.html

 

[zebracoy]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

 

[ScribePharisee]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

I was watching an ESPY remake tonight and thinking to myself. Erin Andrews is hot, but she's allegedly a journalist who has crossed into celebrity status. A very troublesome thought: ESPN has made its people that way. And now this. They'll team with rivals or some site like that and hammer even the preps people across the country. It makes me hate ESPN. They're getting bigger and bigger and no one seems to be able to stop them. It's like watching the Yankees of the 1920s or 1990s.

 

[BYH]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

I was watching an ESPY remake tonight and thinking to myself. Erin Andrews is hot, but she's allegedly a journalist who has crossed into celebrity status. A very troublesome thought: ESPN has made its people that way. And now this. They'll team with rivals or some site like that and hammer even the preps people across the country. It makes me hate ESPN. They're getting bigger and bigger and no one seems to be able to stop them. It's like watching the Yankees of the 1920s or 1990s.

Would be easier to hate ESPN for this if the papers weren't doing a bang-up job of killing themselves all on their own.

 

[ScribePharisee]

Pretty sickening. It's like watching the neighborhood's Bill Gates, though a nerd he had a brain that would have the next-door toughie mowing his yard, getting his ass whipped as an adult.

 

[Den1983]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

They're getting bigger and bigger and no one seems to be able to stop them. It's like watching the Yankees of the 1920s or 1990s.

Yup. This is NOT good for newspapers, and only reinforces the belief that smaller papers are the only ones that have a shot in hell of surviving. ESPN certainly has the resources, staff and power to significantly affect major metro papers.

 

[mustangj17]

What kind of crews do they have working on these projects?

 

[DanOregon]

Figured this was coming when they went on a shopping spree a year or so ago.
Figure Boston, Atlanta and Denver will be next.

I'm waiting for word that they'll start offering their stuff to local papers for free. I guarantee publishers will jump at it.

 

[spud]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

I was watching an ESPY remake tonight and thinking to myself. Erin Andrews is hot, but she's allegedly a journalist who has crossed into celebrity status. A very troublesome thought: ESPN has made its people that way. And now this. They'll team with rivals or some site like that and hammer even the preps people across the country. It makes me hate ESPN. They're getting bigger and bigger and no one seems to be able to stop them. It's like watching the Yankees of the 1920s or 1990s.

Would be easier to hate ESPN for this if the papers weren't doing a bang-up job of killing themselves all on their own.

It's the poor top-down administration that has killed papers, not (necessarily) the lack of local coverage. At papers with the resources to do it I still see plenty of bang-on hyper local coverage. This is the further growth of sports journalism's WalMart and I fail to see any real positive to it.

 

[mustangj17]

So what do they do in Chicago? I am not familiar with this at all. Does anyone have a link to a Web site?

 

[mb]

So what do they do in Chicago? I am not familiar with this at all. Does anyone have a link to a Web site?

Never looked. But they sure promo the hell out of it.

 

[Simon]

ESPNchicago.com

They use AP for everything with some columnists and bloggers to kick the Sun-Times and Trib's ass. Cheap and a big money maker...obviously.

 

[BYH]

Probably best to start with the top four markets.

I was watching an ESPY remake tonight and thinking to myself. Erin Andrews is hot, but she's allegedly a journalist who has crossed into celebrity status. A very troublesome thought: ESPN has made its people that way. And now this. They'll team with rivals or some site like that and hammer even the preps people across the country. It makes me hate ESPN. They're getting bigger and bigger and no one seems to be able to stop them. It's like watching the Yankees of the 1920s or 1990s.

Would be easier to hate ESPN for this if the papers weren't doing a bang-up job of killing themselves all on their own.

It's the poor top-down administration that has killed papers, not (necessarily) the lack of local coverage. At papers with the resources to do it I still see plenty of bang-on hyper local coverage. This is the further growth of sports journalism's WalMart and I fail to see any real positive to it.

Completely agree and I apologize if my post was misconstrued as criticizing those who provide the coverage. My bile was aimed squarely and completely at piece of **** management.

 

[SockPuppet]

A story in the NYT - on 1A, no less - about this said ESPN planned to hire 15 people for its three new outposts. It wasn't clear if that was 15 in each city or 5 in each city. I'd bet the latter.

And I'd also bet that if ESPN wants to hire a columnist in the DFW area, it will be the DMN's Tim Cowlishaw. Synergy and all that.

 

[BYH]

A story in the NYT - on 1A, no less - about this said ESPN planned to hire 15 people for its three new outposts. It wasn't clear if that was 15 in each city or 5 in each city. I'd bet the latter.

Odds those 15 will be on contract so they don't have to pay benefits? 3/2?

 

[SockPuppet]

Doubt if you could get odds on that because it's a dead solid lock they'll do contracts for most if not all 15.

 

[Football_Bat]

Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dallas seem to be squabbling over who's the No. 4 media market at the moment, but DFW's the one that's growing. And it's ripe for the Mouse to move in.

 

[Stitch]

It's newspapers that put up with the AP giving it's stuff to outlets such as ESPN without getting content back. Newspapers need to push AP to stop taking on outlets who just take and take.

 

[ScribePharisee]

A story in the NYT - on 1A, no less - about this said ESPN planned to hire 15 people for its three new outposts. It wasn't clear if that was 15 in each city or 5 in each city. I'd bet the latter.

Odds those 15 will be on contract so they don't have to pay benefits? 3/2?

I'm betting five on contract. Hell, newspapers will respond by firing everyone and hiring five on contract. Who of course, will also be expected to edit and design your pages.

Here's a hunch: Look at the AP story and match it to an ESPN highlight report. I bet they're similar.

 

[EagleMorph]

ESPN owns and operates five radio stations throughout the United States in five different cities:
Chicago - 1000 AM
LA - 710 AM
Dallas - 103.3 FM
New York - 1050 AM
Pittsburgh - 1250 AM

While they have hundreds of other affiliates across the country, those five cities already have a pure ESPN presence.

Four of them will now have localized websites. Fair bet that Pittsburgh is next on the list.