Niche Web Sites Such As SB Nation Gaining In Popularity

SB Nation Seeing Gains In Visitors, Revenue

Several start-up Web sites such as sports site SB Nation are “recording sharp gains in visitors and -- in many cases -- revenue” through business models that “allow them to create niche content with little financial investment,” according to Vascellaro & Holmes of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. SB Nation said that the number of visitors to its site rose 15% from December to a total of 3.4 million in January, even as unique visitors to the category of sports sites tracked by comScore fell 2%. SB Nation launched a partnership with Yahoo Sports last week and “has signed another deal” with USA Today. The site is “trying to offer content that larger sports destination don’t often generate on their own, such as team-specific blogs.” SB Nation “recruits the authors and pays them based in part on the popularity of their posts.” SB Nation CEO Jim Bankoff said that it is a business model that the Web site “believes can keep its site afloat with less advertising than traditional media companies.” Bankoff: “This model only works if you have a cost structure to enable it to work” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/2).

RECRUITING ONLINE: In N.Y., Richard Morgan reported recruiting Web sites such as BeRecruited.com are “meeting places for coaches and athletes, and are most suited for what coaches call ‘boom sports’ -- lacrosse, volleyball, golf -- that are increasingly popular outside of their traditional havens.” Recruiting Web sites are “generally free for coaches, and most provide a free level of access for students.” Varying pay scales “buy students access to benefits: tailored searching, more prominence in coaches’ searches, reports on which coaches have viewed your profile.” BeRecrutied.com “handles 17 sports and about 6[%] of the nation’s 2.25 million active high school juniors and seniors” (N.Y. TIMES, 3/1).