Chicago news outlets, which have some experience competing directly with ESPN, acknowledge that the threat is real.
“We are taking ESPN’s marketing push seriously, and we are looking forward to the local sports turf battle in the weeks and months ahead,” said Bill Adee, The Chicago Tribune’s editor for digital media.
In less than three months, ESPN Chicago has become the city’s top sports site, attracting about 590,000 unique visitors in June, according to data from comScore, an Internet measurement company. Second place went to The Tribune’s online sports section with 455,000 unique visitors. READ THE REST
Now the sports giant is opening sites in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. I guess the LA site is just for the Lakers really (although people are hopeful about the Dodgers this season, right?).
If I was a news site with sports content in any of those cities - I'd be nervous. Can you really beat the sports leader with AP content? Naturally the newspapers sties have a better shot than the TV station web sites.
At least in New York and Los Angeles there will probably be synergy with ABC owned stations WABC and KABC. WFAA is probably out of luck on this one. I am sure the local ESPN radio stations will contribute to the new site too. CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here
