This is a story that started circulating last night and now has come into fruition. In addition to its ESPN Chicago site that launched earlier this year, ESPN is now going after audience in the nation’s two largest cities and in the Metroplex. Here’s the press release from ESPN.
ESPN to Expand Network of Local Sports Sites
Sites for Dallas, New York and Los Angeles to Join Successful ESPNChicago.com
ESPN announced today that it will roll out three more city-specific sports sites in the months ahead, with Dallas, Los Angeles and New York joining the successful ESPNChicago.com. ESPNDallas.com is slated to launch this Fall, followed by ESPNNewYork.com and ESPNLosAngeles.com in the first half of 2010. Like ESPNChicago.com, each site will feature an integrated home for ESPN’s news and information, online video and digital audio powered by the flagship ESPN Radio station in each market, giving local fans a destination for their sports on-air, online, on-site and on mobile devices.
“Our commitment to expand ESPN’s network of localized sites is a testament to our dedication to serve sports fans and their passions,” said Marc Horine, vice president digital partnerships and sales development, ESPN Digital Media. “We understand that local sports interests ignite strong passions, and Dallas, New York and Los Angeles have some of the most storied franchises and fan bases in history. We’re excited by the early success we’ve had with ESPNChicago.com and the opportunities that lie ahead.”
Repoz
Posted: July 20, 2009 at 09:01 PM |
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1. Baseball-Birthdays.com Posted: July 20, 2009 at 09:12 PM (#3260462)my condolences to baseball enthusiasts in these cities...
I think all of these local site are necessary because espn.com was secretly replaced by espnBoston.com about 5 years ago.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have these arterial sites for undercovered markets? Chicago made some sense because it's in the midwest but has lots of fans and teams. Maybe one for Ohio? Or St. Louis? Denver? I think espn has enough LA/NY coverage already.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have these arterial sites for undercovered markets? Chicago made some sense because it's in the midwest but has lots of fans and teams. Maybe one for Ohio? Or St. Louis? Denver? I think espn has enough LA/NY coverage already.
The L.A. one makes sense since ESPN just opened up their West coast headquarters in downtown L.A., and the local sports media has been gutted, at least when it pertains to everything besides the Lakers. The L.A. Times is the only newspaper carrying a full time beat writer to cover the Dodgers for instance.
Don't fire me.
it's been a while since I've been described as "fashionable" in any sense of the word, but if ESPN is the next generation of local media, well...
pass.
Think of it this way instead of leaning on your disdain for ESPN: If you were an executive at ESPN, wouldn't this strategy be a great way to expand the breadth of the company's coverage while adding minimal cost and a potential source of additional revenue and brand power? Basically, this is an effort to capitalize on existing assets (namely the ESPN web site and name recognition among sports fans) while adding the minimal expense of additional writers in the markets.
From a business perspective, I don't see how this can be viewed as a bad move. If it fails, the investment will have been minimal, and if it succeeeds the potential gains are tremendous.
Well, there are only two newspapers, one of which has been focusing mostly on the Valley for quite some time.
Isn't that just the thing? ESPN seems much more likely to focus on the biggest things in these cities, things which are already covered massively.
There is, but prepare to be underwhelmed.
I was chuckling reading about ESPN's plans to cover high school ("and perhaps beyond") sports. Now, they own the Dallas station, and Dan Gilbert, who was the PD of The Ticket, ended up taking a very high-up job at ESPN Radio and last I heard had moved up a couple more notches. But if ESPN thinks it wants any part of trying to kick the coverage of high school football past where it is now on FoxSW, the local independents, and the local networks, I think it is in for an interesting journey.
But the Trib website is God-awful (google it) and I wonder how ESPN will do in cities where the local rag does a decent job covering sports because ESPNChicago didn't feel like a local website, it felt like ESPN with a Chicago news filter.
I also live in Chicago and was also completely unaware. Are they advertising anywhere? I go to ESPN.com on occasion and was never presented with an ad. I know that web sites can target your general area based on IP address, so why have I not gotten bombarded with web ads for this?
ESPN 1000, not surprisingly, has been promoting the hell out of it. I don't know if there's been a similar blitz anywhere else.
But even the promise of Scoop Jackson and Wayne Drehs and Gene Wojohowski (sp, don't care enough to check) has not interested me enough to check it out.
Looking around, I see ESPN already owns the domains: ESPNDetroit, ESPNDC, ESPNPhilly, ESPNPhiladelphia, ESPNBoston, ESPNPittsburgh, ESPNAtlanta, ESPNPhoenix, ESPNSanFrancisco, ESPNSF, and ESPNOakland.
There's a lot to criticize about espn.com (video ads that kill my home computer, for instance), but you can literally get to live box scores with one click.
I don't understand why you would ever go to ESPN.com in search of a live box score. Yahoo, USA Today, and CBS Sports all have live scores without all the bloat of ESPN.
Local newspapers are dying, and everything indicates they are unlikely to survive as an institution in the new media world. ESPN's tack is to take what worked in Boston for WEEI - founding WEEI.com with big-name writers and bloggers covering the local team - and putting the trustworthy WWL stamp of approval on it in other markets before the competing papers realize what has happened. Thus they will become the "paper of record" for local sports.
When the people who care about prep sports no longer have a source for game reports or athlete profiles, I can see ESPN winning big with this strategy. All they have to do is wait for the competition to implode -- which it will.
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