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| Skipper, 48, has led a magazine known for its appeal to younger readers. |
John Skipper, ESPN's senior vice president, has overseen content development, design, production and marketing for espn.com and ESPN The Magazine since December 2001.Before joining espn.com, Skipper was vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine, where he led the most successful magazine start-up of the 1990s. Since its March 1998 launch, the biweekly publication has increased its circulation to 1.65 million, and in 2003 ESPN won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the 1 million-2 million circulation category.
Skipper, a North Carolina native and die-hard UNC Tar Heel fan, recently spoke with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Russell Adams about everything from the business challenges facing ESPN to his taste in music.
In April ESPN reshuffled its management ranks to allow you to step back and leave more of the decision-making and approval duties up to others. How has that worked out for you, and for the magazine and espn.com? Are you bored?
Skipper: It's worked out great for me, until senior management figures out that these guys are doing a better job than I used to do. John Kosner has done a great job at dot.com, Geoff Reiss has done a great job at the magazine. It allowed me to concentrate on other things, including the launch of our consumer products business. I'm not bored.
From the time you, John Papanek and John Walsh teamed up to launch ESPN The Magazine, you shared a vision of making the ESPN brand this perpetual pump that was constantly feeding sports fans information from every medium. To what extent have you achieved what you set out to do, and what is left to do?
Skipper: We've made great progress in taking information and disseminating it through whatever media fans are using. And I think we've done a good job of taking big events and making all that sort of feel seamless. It doesn't matter where you get it, we're covering the NFL draft, we're covering the Super Bowl. ... There's a lot more stuff to do, including figuring out what we do on broadband platforms and on wireless platforms. We have an enormous advantage.
You traveled to Asia recently to observe the communication possibilities in a cell phone-saturated culture. What did you learn?
Skipper: We learned that where markets are somewhat more advanced in terms of their ability to disseminate information on the phone, that people will demand more interesting information. There's a real opportunity for us to disseminate sports information on the telephone. We'll look to figure out smart ways to do that.
What's the biggest threat to ESPN's business?
Skipper: Timidity. Not being willing to try new things. We're in such a good place right now. But we still have to be willing to try new things, whether it's new ideas on "SportsCenter" or redesigning the magazine. We've got to make sure we stay bold.
What are you most proud of in your time at ESPN?
Skipper: I think I'm most proud of the launch of the magazine, and the success that it has had. Also, the moving of espn.com to a clear No. 1 position in terms of sports online. We now have to take those two businesses and use them to build the overall brand, to integrate with the broadcast business to make the whole bigger than the sum of the parts.
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| From the start, ESPN The Magazine has concentrated on looking forward. |
Why has ESPN The Magazine been so successful? Skipper: Because it's good. I think we've correctly identified that for young sports fans, they want a magazine that reflects their style and attitude, and also takes into account the rest of their sports media experience. They've already seen the highlights and read about the game. What they want to do is learn some new things, whether that's the culture, the personality of the players. ... It's speaking to them in their own language about stuff they want to know about.
How do you keep tabs on what's hot with today's youth?
Skipper: My own immaturity is my greatest resource. But I do have two sons at home, ages 18 and 14, who are readers of the magazine and who let me know if we are getting it wrong. Both of those are true, by the way — my immaturity, and they do let me know. We continue to hire employees. It's not all up to me to keep up with what's going on. In fact, the magazine should become increasingly incomprehensible to me. And that's OK.
What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say Sports Illustrated?
Skipper: I think it's become pretty clear there's room for both. We're competitive guys, and always sort of are cognizant of them. And they do many things that I admire. Although they do very few things that I wish we had in ESPN, simply because it has a different mission. It has all the vitality of a 50-year-old. And I'm 48, so I understand it very acutely.
What's the future of ESPN The Magazine? Specifically, are we going to see a continued blending of the magazine with ESPN's other properties?
Skipper: While we try really hard to integrate things, we also try to make sure that the properties stand on their own. We don't do integration at the expense of the quality of the individual medium.
Does its rapid growth, combined with the recent moves toward more serious, investigative pieces, put it at risk of losing its competitive advantage in the marketplace?
Skipper: We're cognizant of balancing getting bigger and still maintaining our very targeted audience. We would not want to sacrifice being targeted for just being bigger. As long as we maintain that target, we're happy to grow.
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| "The Thin Man" provided a name for a young Skipper. |
What's your favorite movie?Skipper: It's a tie between "The Thin Man" and "Barry Lyndon." Both of my sons have some connections to those movies. [Clay Redmond Skipper is named for Redmond Barry, the actor from "Barry Lyndon." Nick Skipper is named after Nick Charles, the main character in "The Thin Man."]
Favorite director?
Skipper: Stanley Kubrick
Actor or actress you most admire?
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| Grant |
Skipper: Cary Grant
Sports figure you would most like to work with?
Skipper: I'd work with Roy Williams on bringing the national championship to Chapel Hill.
What brand do you most admire and why?
Skipper: Other than ESPN, Nike because they're so smart. The brand is so powerful, and they've done an unbelievable job of having a mass brand that has hip appeal.
Name three magazines on your bedstand.
Skipper: The New Yorker, The Beat [a reggae magazine] and 442, which is a soccer mag.
What are you listening to right now?
Skipper: A lot of reggae. And the new OutKast is awesome.
Growing up in North Carolina taught you ...
Skipper: It taught me a certain amount of humility. Ain't nothing fancy about where I grew up.
What's the biggest misperception of working in sports?
Skipper: That I don't have to go to all those games. I do. Print that, and that'll help me out with my wife.
What executive do you most admire and why?
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| Stern |
Skipper: David Stern. Because I love basketball, and [because of] the job they've done of building the sport. It's undergoing a really nice period right now, after Michael [Jordan] and with LeBron [James] and Carmelo [Anthony] and all the new stars. And I think their marketing is terrific. I'll be in trouble with the other leagues, but what the heck.
Look for more of this conversation in our sister publication, The Sports Business Daily, located at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
