USA Today Sports Media Group has struck a substantial joint venture with MLBAM, with plans to collaborate on a series of new content and digital product initiatives. Specific plans in the deal have yet to be announced, but among the likely projects are a series of co-branded and co-operated content sites covering numerous sports. "As we become a digital-first company, MLBAM is the perfect partner to have. They're the absolute best in the world at what they do, and we also bring a lot of content and distribution assets to the table," said USA Today Sports Media Group President Tom Beusse. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Beusse branded it "an equal partnership in the truest sense." Both sides will make an undisclosed capital investment in the venture, and share in advertising and sponsorship sales. The effort will be based in N.Y., leaning on existing staff from both MLBAM's Manhattan HQs and offices there for the USA Today Sports Media Group. An undetermined number of new personnel will also likely be hired. For USA Today Sports Media Group, the MLBAM alignment continues a series of aggressive moves, including the purchase last month of Big Lead Sports and last fall's hiring of several industry veterans including Dave Morgan, Peter Lazarus, John Von Stade and Merrill Squires. Meanwhile, MLBAM now holds some type of formal business relationship with nearly all of the most-visited U.S. online sports destinations, including Yahoo, ESPN and CBSSports.com.
