As part of its integrated marketing partnership with
the Ravens, PSINet is launching an affinity Internet service
called Ravenszone around Saturday's NFL Draft, according to
Shannon Henry of the WASHINGTON POST. The service will cost
$19.95 a month and gives subscribers "unlimited Internet
access, an e-mail address that ends in ravenszone.com and
access to what's pitched as insider Ravens information on a
new Web site, www.ravenszone.net." Henry adds that PSINet
will host a launch party for 10,000 "or so" people on
Saturday at PSINet Stadium (WASHINGTON POST, 4/15).
DRAFTNICKS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's David Sweet
writes that sports Web sites are "capitalizing on the
sometimes-obsessive interest in the NFL draft" and are
"providing the most comprehensive coverage of the year --
that is, for an event in which there is no final score."
Sweet detailed some of the draft offerings on the Web and
notes that ESPN.com sold an online version of Mel Kiper
Jr.'s draft guide two weeks earlier than its actual
publication. Kiper: "It's a way to get a lot of information
a lot quicker. You want to make it as accessible as you
can" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/14). In Ft. Worth, Tommy
Cummings wrote that ESPN.com and NFL.com "have pooled their
resources for draft analysis and coverage that should
satiate even the most avid draftnik." The site's DraftTicker
is designed "to allow draft junkies to analyze selections in
real time and sort selections by player, position, NFL or
college team" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 4/13).
