Spoon said that the "First Take, Your Take" project has been a few months in the worksESPN
ESPN Senior VP/Social Content Ryan Spoon (@ESPN) has been busy since assuming his role in September, including the launch of SportsCenter Snapchat in December and "First Take, Your Take" yesterday on Facebook. Spoon said the Facebook project has "been a few months in the works" as all sides looked for the best timing, best way to roll it out and right way to execute. Despite the heavy load, Spoon said his new role has been fun. Spoon: "We have an opportunity to be really creative in a landscape that is really quickly changing. ... All of that has been pretty freeing and pretty invigorating."
Staying ahead in an ever-changing digital landscape:
We are very fortunate to have a remarkable brand, a remarkable set of contributors and talent and voices and personality. We also have a very large -- and by a good margin -- the largest sports digital property. This is a chance for us to position those things in a way that make sense and are engaging and fun and touch the fans on the platforms that sit alongside us. Step one of how do we do that is to go in with the mentality of we will learn as long as we try. It’s much harder to do that if you are afraid to put the first foot in.
Managing the large number of ESPN feeds:
What I have been trying to focus on -- and there has been a real momentum -- is putting resources and energy on the core handles and platforms that drive real engagement and real scale for us. That is very clearly ESPN, "SportsCenter" and then some larger sports, like the NBA, NFL and college football. When you look at just those alone, you are touching the vast majority of our overall audience. When I joined ESPN, we had over 50 apps on iOS alone. When you think about how to most effectively reach audiences and deploy your strategy and resources and efforts, it’s nearly impossible to do that well across that volume. It confuses fans. Over a period of time, we really consolidated those and focused on the ESPN app for scores, news, videos, highlights, live stream. ESPN Fantasy would be all things games.
Social media chain of command for talent:
We don’t manage their accounts. They manage their accounts, and I think that’s important for a whole bunch of reasons. Most importantly, authenticity and voice. There are times when we work very closely and figure out a cohesive, coordinated effort around very tight initiatives. There has been a lot of effort and discussion around how we seed "First Take, Your Take" and distribute that, particularly using the show's handle and ESPN and "SportsCenter" feeds. But I would argue more importantly, the more valuable way to do that is to authentically do it and to engage Stephen A. Smith, and Molly Qerim and so forth. You do that together in a way that’s coordinated and cohesive. You should get a much better output than if it is done individually.
Monitoring social media of on-air talent:
It is not a situation where anyone on either side of the equation wants to be dedicated to watching all the activity. The current policies are an evolution of something the existed previously, which was spearheading core principles and guidelines for us all to live in. When something becomes an issue, there is a process internally -- it’s not mine -- and they review and discuss the right route for it. It’s kind of case by case. It’s important to have guiding principles and kind of an individual gut check as you press publish.
Focus of staff meetings -- education or common sense?
I spend a lot of time talking to my team about the right way to carry oneself, the right way to think about and focus on quality and to make sure there is accuracy and balance. Then there is tone and so forth. Some of those things have to be part of your core process and DNA, but some is learned. Some of that is spacial. What works on each platform also changes and changes as the platform changes.
Prioritizing TV, social media or website for news:
Quality and accuracy first. Then it is a coordinated effort across all platforms. Each one represents something different. When we do it properly, they should all speak to each other. But the role of each platform is different.
Whether "snackable" content is the future for SportsCenter and news in general:
I don’t know if it is the future of news or a specific franchise. It is a necessity for where the user is consuming. For Snapchat, that is a snackable environment. Snackable represents to me less about time and segment by segment and more about marrying the user behavior with the device and behavior with the best content experience to match that.
