Throughout the week, THE DAILY will present anecdotes from numerous industry execs remembering when they first started reading SBD and SBJ and the impact the publications have had.
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Selig found the SBD helpful in chronicling MLB's
business development
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Bud Selig, MLB Commissioner
The birth of SBD in September '94 coincided with some of the darkest days of the '94 players’ strike that ultimately wiped out that year’s World Series. Having SBD helped bring the blow-by-blow of that fractious labor conflict to a wider audience. But nearly two decades later, Selig said he does not regret the additional scrutiny that SBD provided that difficult autumn and winter.
“There were things in there I liked and things I didn’t like, to be certain,” said Selig. “So, yeah, initially The Daily probably didn’t help. But as time went on, every other step in our development was chronicled, as well. Things like the birth of MLB Advanced Media and the MLB Network. And seeing things written now in there about our labor peace, it gives me great satisfaction.
"Pro sports has gone from a relatively simple business to something now very sophisticated, and the growth has been clearly reflected over the years in The Daily and Journal.”
John Brody, NFL Senior VP/Sponsorship & Media Sales
The business of sports has evolved from a niche business to a valuable component of any leading marketer’s annual plan. As we have developed as an industry, we needed a reliable and thought-provoking avenue to share news, concepts and ideas. We needed a way to connect, communicate and learn. The SportsBusiness Journal/Daily, and now Global edition, has been a true connector. It brings us together virtually, figuratively and literally, as we all look to grow our respective businesses.
The SBJ family of publications has evolved, matured and changed with our industry’s growth and has consistently been an outlet for communication and insight. The growth of technology has stymied and even been a death sentence for many publications, but the SBJ family has found ways to remain relevant and has, in fact, grown in importance when many others have closed their doors. I have been reading the family of SBJ publications since its inception (if I recall correctly, one of my deals between MLB and Fleet Bank was on your first cover) and view it as a sports industry staple. I have enjoyed highs and lows with the publication. It has enlightened, challenged, rewarded and at times frustrated me in my career, but isn’t that the purpose? The end game is that today, the SBJ family of publications matters to all of us in this segment.
Casey Wasserman, WMG Founder & CEO
I remember subscribing to SBD in college. Having grown up in Los Angeles around the entertainment industry, pubs like Variety and Hollywood Reporter defined the industry in many ways. For an industry as big and as public as the business of sports to not have had a publication is really testament to the original plan and your execution. The business of sports became larger and more prevalent, and that elevated everyone, including the publications that cover it. There are lots of things I have read in SBD/SBJ that led us to go take action, including buying the [Los Angeles] Arena Football League team. After I read that the NFL had met with the Arena Football League, that seemed interesting.
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Levine craved the information he found in The
Daily, finding himself hooked on its content
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Mike Levine, CAA Sports co-Head
We used to get The Daily over the fax machine. I remember trying to help critique in those early days and share information. It was a collaborative experiment we were all participating in. I was 22 years old, turning 23. I was a year and a half into the business. I was at a stage when I was starving for information. I was eager to get my hands on whatever I could to understand the business. Then, all of a sudden, this 15- or 20-page fax that came every day had information from all corners of the world. Art Kaminsky, the guy we worked for, was an information hound. He clipped newspapers from all over the place and he wanted to have information for clients. The whole nature of The Daily was an amalgamation of sources gathered around the industry. The Daily was an important part of the early stage of my career.
By the time SBJ came out, I was hooked. I felt rooted and a part of SBD. I remember hearing about a magazine. It added a level of sexiness to the information. I didn’t think it was all that much different. It was a summarizing version with photos and images. It didn’t seem like it was that big of a change. But as time has gone on, and the magazine evolved, the two publications have acted differently even though they work in concert.
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Luukko (r) said The Daily was the first publication
of its kind to arrive in a timely manner
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Peter Luukko, former Comcast-Spectacor President & COO
We have been reading both publications since Day One, right from the beginning. Between the magazine and the emails, you love the opportunity to get a quick snippet of what’s going on that day. Early on, we would get those [SBD] faxes. It was at a time when information traveled slowly, which is hard to believe, the way things are now. Really it was the first publication that came on a timely basis, based on what was going on that day or the day before. It was really the first of its kind. We’d get it and copy it for everybody, right down the line. It was something that was fairly revolutionary at the time. Now, more and more are doing it.
In terms of SBJ, it’s really, in my career, been the only publication that focused on the business of sports. Other publications might have had sections or the odd article, but this publication focused solely on sports. What’s become interesting is that even the people on the team side, who for the most part are focused on team issues, because that’s what they do -- they’re also reading the business side, because now the two are becoming more entwined than they ever have been.
Sean McManus, CBS Sports Chair
I became aware of SBJ and SBD right when they came into existence and became a faithful and regular reader of both. Today, I read the Morning Buzz first thing in the morning. I read the rest of the online version sometime in the afternoon or evening. I find myself looking at the magazine sometime within a day or two of when it arrives. I’ll try to find 15-20 minutes to skim through it and read the articles that I think are interesting or the ones that pertain to CBS and the businesses that we’re in.
SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily is the primary source for news and information because it’s accurate, it’s complete and it has writers that are knowledgeable enough that usually their insights are valuable. There are other ways to get that information, but you have to search around different publications. For me, it’s the only one dedicated to the business of sports that I read on a regular basis.
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de Picciotto said SBD and SBJ made businesses
more aware of each other's role in the industry
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Phil de Picciotto, Octagon Worldwide President
As the business of sports became broader and more of a professional discipline, it was natural and appropriate for there to be a reliable industry publication for news that did not typically fall on sports pages. SBJ and SBD filled the gap with quality publications, on a daily and weekly basis, so professionals could stay as current on the business side as they were on sports stats from the traditional media. SBD and SBJ changed the business in making the leading brands, properties and agencies in the business more aware of what they were all doing. It was well-suited to the times in that it demystified a growing business to a lot of new people in it. You knew you had to set aside some time every week to get a view across the industry -- and that was, and is, extremely valuable. We recognized early on the importance of having such publications, so we tried to contribute with our own news and by supporting the business side by sponsoring conferences for five years.
David Falk, Falk Associates Management Enterprises Founder & CEO
It was interesting to read because there was nothing like it. There was no publication that kept abreast of rights fees and naming rights and sponsorships and movement of executives. It was actually a very interesting concept. The SportsBusiness Journal has become the Hollywood Reporter for the sports industry. It is helpful to have some kind of professional publication that you know is reliable in keeping up with what is going on in the industry. In any industry, it is very important. If you are a lawyer, you’re reading a law publication. If you are an entertainment agent, you are reading Hollywood Reporter or Variety. I think it's very important to know what is going on.
Howard Handler, MLS CMO
I remember [reading SBD from] the very beginning, right off the fax machine at the NFL. Does that date me? I was in the TV business before the NFL so I was used to Variety and the Hollywood Reporter as a way to stay plugged in, and I always wondered why the sports business didn’t have something similar. With SBD and SBJ, my wishes were answered. The thing that strikes me the most is the evolution of the reporting. In the beginning, it was straight news. Today it’s got perspective and a ‘voice.’ It still keeps me plugged in, but gives me the broader view, as well.
