These are exciting times at Sports Business Journal and I wanted to share with you all the additions we have made to our team. As many of you know, in April we announced Warren Thune as the CEO of the newly formed Leaders Group, which consists of SBJ/Leaders/Newzoo and The Esports Obsever. In July, we named Eileen Silvergleid as the first chief revenue officer in SBJ’s history, and in August, we named Chad Rossman as our new audience development director. Eileen and Chad will join our management team as we focus on growing our reach and impact. In addition, I’m pleased to announce four new hires in our editorial department. I want to introduce you to them and let you know of their areas of focus and how to contact them. Please feel free to reach out to them with news, ideas or information.
Karn Dhingra will cover all aspects of facilities, venues and the overall fan experience, from mixed-use developments to culinary experiences to ticketing and in-venue technology. Karn has a deep business reporting background that most recently included stints at Bloomberg Law and S&P Global Market Intelligence. Among the subjects he’s covered are real estate, finance, technology, local politics and economic development — the pillars of the facility beat. Karn has an undergraduate degree from SMU and a master’s in digital media from Columbia. Karn will be based in Houston and work out of the Houston Business Journal office, a sister publication to SBJ. He can be reached at kdhingra@bizjournals.com and at 713-395-9605.
Bret McCormick has joined our Charlotte office as a general assignment and research reporter. A graduate of UNC Charlotte, Bret comes to SBJ after seven years at the Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald, where he developed skills using data while working as the paper’s lone sports reporter/editor. His work has been recognized by the North and South Carolina press associations as well as the national Associated Press Sports Editors. His role with SBJ will be a new hybrid staff writer/research associate position that will utilize and showcase his data reporting abilities. He also will assist us on company features, like the one he wrote this week on the five-year anniversary of sports marketing agency Bespoke. Bret can be reached at bmccormick@bizjournals.com and at 704-973-1425.
Eric Prisbell will lead our coverage of baseball and all areas of technology. Eric has nearly 20 years of journalism experience, with stops at the Washington Post and USA Today. Eric served as an investigative and enterprise reporter covering college basketball across the nation during his time at USA Today, and before that covered college sports for the Washington Post. Eric, a graduate of Rutgers University (2000), most recently served as the Big 12 Conference reporter for CNHI Sports. Eric will be based in Dallas and will work out of the Dallas Business Journal office. Eric can be reached at eprisbell@bizjournals.com and 204-706-7131.
Mark J. Burns will cover the business of hockey, with additional beats added shortly. Mark will be working out of the Washington Business Journal office until he relocates to New York at the end of the year. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2011 with a degree in history and political science/crime and justice, he earned his law degree at Belmont University College of Law in 2014. From there, he had stints at USA Hockey Magazine, CSE Talent and SportTechie, and he launched his own digital company, SportsBusinessChronicle.com. He joins us from Morning Consult, where he was senior reporter on sports business. He can be reached at mburns@bizjournals.com and at 212-500-0722.
We will continue to round out our editorial and reporting team in the days ahead to continue to provide the news, analysis and trends you need to know. I hope you reach out to our new staffers, and we welcome your questions, thoughts and comments regarding our coverage and how to better serve your news and information needs.
Finally, a moment of reflection and recognition, as Sports Business Daily celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. It launched on Sept. 12, 1994, and I was fortunate to be on a team led by Jeffrey Pollack, Stephen Bilafer and Chuck Todd (yes, host of “Meet The Press”), among others, who published a fax publication out of an old Victorian house in Arlington, Va. You can read about the history of The Daily here. We want to thank our loyal readers for your longtime support of a really fun product to publish and be around every day. It’s exciting to know we have even more fun days ahead.
First Look podcast, with issues Abe is watching this week, at the 24:30 mark:
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
