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People and Pop Culture

Plugged In: Elena Bergeron, SB Nation

This year has already been marked by major change for SB Nation, Vox Media’s sports media outlet. As part of a larger leadership shift, the company in March named Elena Bergeron editor-in-chief of the growing portfolio that includes the flagship SBNation.com, more than 300 team sites and five sites devoted to mixed martial arts and combat sports. Bergeron is helping lead a revamping of each of those sites and an expansion of video content for SB Nation, which now operates under a new tagline of “Come Fan With Us.”


We’re able to produce all sorts of content that reflects the pact we have with sports fans as an independent brand. There’s no overlord dictating how we cover sports.

Photo by: KEENON PERRY / SB NATION

On operating a sports media outlet without a linear TV component: There are limitations to not having that major linear deal, the ability to quickly and legally use game footage being primary. But overall, I love not having boundaries set on what we can riff on or what we can investigate or do enterprise reporting on. It really keeps us producing content from the perspective of true fans.

On connecting with younger audiences: We’re constantly thinking about how the same piece of news needs to be presented differently in text-based formats versus what we’d do on Snapchat or Instagram Stories or Facebook video. We still need to tell good stories and spotlight cool stuff. That’s not new. What’s new is understanding what users want from each platform.

On the rise of women in sports media: I see it continuing. Whether it’s the success of Libby Geist or Alison Overholt over at ESPN or Erika Nardini at Barstool, I’m hoping that a rising tide lifts all boats and that there is a steady stream of women being considered for leadership opportunities at all outlets. Beyond that, I hope their success helps vary the coverage and convinces different outlets to consider the audience of sports fans less monolithically.

On the most underreported story in sports: Anything involving the future of the IOC. The Olympics are massive tentpole events that are supposed to be a celebration of human achievement. But the infrastructure around those events is deeply flawed. Reporting on it should be a 24/7 beat, but the cost of covering an international story with lots of political, financial and science-related implications is prohibitively difficult for most outlets.

— Eric Fisher

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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