Newspapers Worry About ESPN
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Zach Jevne
With the launch of numerous new ESPN Web sites, the newspaper industry is once again worrying about potential loss of revenue.
ESPN, which is glossed "the worldwide leader in sports", has recently started making Web sites for specific markets. They released ESPNChicago.com in April and is already the top sports site in Chicago, according to comScore. On Sept. 14, they launched ESPNBoston.com and in the first 10 days enjoyed three million visits, according to Omniture traffic data.
The new Web site is ESPNDallas.com and the company plans to start a Web site for Los Angeles and New York City. Eventually, they would like to have their own beat writers for each team in the region.
Some feel that ESPN is infringing on the newspapers turf and using their recognition to leverage advertising money for their new sites. The Chicago Tribune has created a new blog network called ChicagoNow in an effort to compete with the new ESPN Web site.
Bill Adee is a editor of digital media with the Tribune and said that he sees ESPNChicago as a direct competitor, but hasn't been made aware of a loss in advertising.
"We still have more local sports reporters on the street in Chicago than ESPN does," Adee said. "ESPN has great promotional venues, but we have 900,000 newspapers delivered on the weekends to people's homes in Chicago."
The newspapers in the mentioned cities had best be prepared for the competition. These Web sites are promoted constantly on SportsCenter and other ESPN shows. They also feature well-known analysts who have regional ties.
"In principle, it's a great idea, but it depends on delivery," Pablo Boczkowski, a professor and author, said. "Great companies in the past like Microsoft and AOL have tried to localize content and failed."
I hope that the newspapers and other regional Web sites are able to continue to evolve and gain a significant following. Even though ESPN is a channel I watch frequently, I generally don't go to their Web sites for my sports news. I like to get opinions and insight from other outlets, too. Maybe other readers will do the same.
(Photo Credit: ESPN.com)
1 comments:
This move isn't too surprising with the evolution of ESPN over the years. They have pretty much all the sports outlets covered between ESPN, ESPN Classic, and ESPN U just to name a few. I think it's a great move and hopefully they can start to cover some of the smaller college and high school sports and give them some coverage.
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