Sports Illustrated "moved quickly on Friday to quell
rumors the company was asking" World Wide Web users to
"click randomly on its pages in order to bump up impression
and click-through counts," according to AD AGE. The rumors
started with a post to the World Wide Web Artists Consortium
e-mail list that said SI had sent out a "spam" e-mail to
women's newsgroups and lists asking users to "hit the pages"
of the recently launched "SIonwomen" area of SI's site "in
order to boost impressions." The post was sent by Daniel
Kron, producer of the competing, "Just Sports for Women."
SI New Media Manager Hart Hooten: "The management of SI
Online, Sports Illustrated, Time Inc. and Pathfinder do not
condone this incident and have taken efforts to ensure it
won't happen again." The "spam" was "apparently sent out by
Lisa Hyman," who helped develop the area and wrote some of
the content. It states: "First, I'm asking you to log online
everyday for the month of February to click through every
page (or so) of 'SIonwomen' to prove that indeed, women's
sports are interesting and readable. My bosses are judging
the success of my project on how many people see it." SI's
Hooten said the area is a "special one-month feature
section," which has no "relationship to the upcoming SI for
Women print magazine" (AD AGE, 2/24).
PREVIEW: SI's upcoming women's magazine is featured by
Michael Hirsley of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Editor Sandy Bailey
said the publication will be "about women athletes, but also
about men, in stories that haven't been told from a women's
perspective," including topics such as domestic violence and
paternity suits (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/22).
