 |
King More Concerned With Building ESPN's
Local Sites Than Creating New Ones |
ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Rob King said ESPN.com is a "natural extension of how actual fans and users and readers have changed their habits where it concerns the digital space" during a podcast with Sports Media Journal. The site continues to provide scores, player news and fantasy updates, but "over the last seven years or so, ESPN in general has developed very, very impressively in terms of becoming a newsgathering, news breaking enterprise journalism-producing news entity and we take that charge very seriously." King: "The other thing that's happened is that we've become a site that has really grown to represent what ESPN is in terms of video and enjoying video. It has become a site that has been very invested in podcasting … and the site has become very engaged in interacting with fans in social media environments. It's really hard to describe what ESPN.com is in a simple sentence other than just a place that is really trying to provide the best sports experience for a fan on the web. That means it's going to continue to change over time."
LOCAL HEROES: ESPN.com currently has five local sites -- Boston, Chicago, Dallas, L.A. and N.Y. -- and King said they are “going great." King: "We have really great traffic to the sites’ content, but also to the sites themselves. … It's actually real engagement with the local sites, which is exactly where we hoped it would be, and we're seeing that in all five sites." King noted that all of the local sites have worked their way “to the top sports site status in these towns, which is a great story.” King said ESPN is “really happy with where we are with these five sites and the effort that we're putting in at this moment is far more concentrated on building those five sites than really thinking about any one other destination."
THE LATEST ON SIMMONS: King said he expects Bill Simmons will re-sign with ESPN.com to continue writing for the site. Deadspin.com earlier this month reported Simmons and ESPN were close to a contract extension, and King said, "We're working through details, and we'll certainly let fans know when we have more firm details to discuss. I would tell you I really love working with Bill" (SPORTSMEDIAJOURNAL.com, 5/19).
