ESPN jumps into high school sports
Cory Bergman May 16th, 2008
While local media companies across the country have aggressively ramped up their high school sports initiatives with new sites and products, ESPN announced that it’s planning to launch a social networking site built around high school sports. ESPN Rise, which is the brand dedicated to the new effort, will also include a good deal of television coverage of high school sports — even in SportsCenter. ESPNRise.com will launch in August.
PRESS RELEASE — ESPN announced it has formally launched a high school sports content initiative that has been named ESPN RISE. ESPN RISE is a multimedia brand dedicated to growing ESPN’s 12- to 17-year-old audience, while providing ESPN fans with compelling high school sports content across all of ESPN’s platforms including programming and events, digital media and publishing.
James Brown, a 13-year-veteran of the company, will lead ESPN RISE as Senior Vice President. Brown was appointed Senior Vice President, New Program Development in April 2007, and will continue to be based in Bristol and report to David Berson.
“ESPN RISE will build upon ESPN’s more than 20-year-tradition of covering high school sports by applying our passion for sports to the creative ways we communicate with our core fan of the future,” said John Skipper, executive vice president, content. “During the past 12 months, James has worked diligently with key stakeholders across the various ESPN platforms to strategically develop the future of high school sports content at the company.”
ESPN RISE assets will include:
Digital Media – In August 2008 ESPN RISE will rollout its official website, ESPNRISE.com, which will feature a robust series of community and social-networking applications targeting high school athletes and content with national, regional and local focal points from ESPN.com, Scouts Inc., Hoopgurlz.com, RISEmag.com and other sites.
Publishing – Immediately, RISE, GIRL, Hardwood and Gridiron Magazines will all fall under the ESPN RISE umbrella. Effective September 2008, RISE Magazine will be re-branded ESPN RISE and will have a forecasted circulation of one million.
Events – The Boost Mobile Elite 24, which features the top 24 high school basketball players in the country, will immediately become ESPN RISE’s premier basketball event.
News and Information – Beginning at the start of the ‘08/’09 school year, high school news and information content will be delivered across several studio shows including SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, and College Football Live.
Programming – ESPN RISE will collaborate with ESPNU in its efforts to continue to take college sports fans deeper into the college experience, by presenting high school sports recruiting content. This will include ESPN’s full slate of live high school games, the Under Armour All-American Football Game, ESPNU’s Recruiting Insider and its annual national signing specials.
“This is a very exciting time for ESPN,” said Brown. “ESPN RISE will provide the high school athlete and fan-base with content and an environment that celebrates high school sports in a unique way.”
5 Comments Add your own
1. Rocker | May 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Speaking of those aggressive local media company high school sports ramp-ups last fall….there was a ton of coverage about them as they launched…not much since. So, how are they doing? Based on the silence and what I see on most of the sites, results have been modest at best. I think. Anyone have a different take?
2. fleetwood mack | May 16th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
look more closely…
espn is third to chase hight school sports….
3. Brad King | May 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
High school sports at my local paper — the Cincinnati Enquirer — is probably like many other major dailies. There’s a wrangler in charge of information, but it’s not as pro-active as it should be.
Local papers could — and should — have thriving sections if they would engage with their schools and readers. And the natural partnership should be with ESPN, feeding a national group their content (if they choose to do that).
If ESPN can build a robust platform, they have a good shot at usurping the local news organizations and creating a very cool product of national interest. If they put the money — and feet — on the ground to build it.
4. wtf executives? | May 19th, 2008 at 10:14 am
for emphasis:
“If they put the money — and feet — on the ground to build it.”
It’s amazing how GM’s, Publishers, VP’s, CEO’s, COO’s, etc… seem to think you can continue to run a business as an Editor, Reporter, Sales Manager, Sales Rep, etc… and also somehow at the same time be the R&D / new products division / completely new business arm of the company while adding like maybe 1 guy on the local level (and lets not forget 6-8 at corporate HQ).
Seems to be working out great…
…for Google.
5. around the block | May 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
There is a company that has long established relationships with schools integrated into their athletic departments with scheduling software. They are building relationships with media companies now, and have a national presence.. highschoolsports.net they seem to have the bast chance I’ve seen to pull it all together. — backing by Gannett helps.. do you hear a Careebuilder.com, cars.com like national brand in the making? one to watch.
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