SB Nation Is Pretty Much Everywhere

The New York Times ran a profile this weekend on SB Nation -- the unabashedly biased (or, alternately, "loyally opinionated") sports-centric network of some 250 blogs that's steadily building a stable of die-hard fans. In April, the network drew no less than 3.6 million unique visitors to its 21 most popular sites. More recently, SB Nation has introduced 20 new, regional sites dedicated to tracking and discussing sports in specific cities and states, including New York. (Chicago, Boston, DC, Detroit, and all of Arizona are already live, with other areas set to launch throughout June and July.) The Times article focuses particularly on how the network acts as competition for smaller newspapers' sports coverage -- although not all Olde Media sports writers are content to sit back and watch the competition trample 'em. As Marty Kaiser, editor of the The Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee tells the Times, journos can't take anything for granted. So, essentially, new media networks like SB Nation can make old media outlets... better: As long as we have the reporters to cover the teams better than anyone else, we've got a place in the future. Places like us, we have to wake up, we can't just sit back and say, 'We own this stuff.' And, indeed, outlets of all types can learn from SB Nation and similar blog networks' reporting style. Says Jim Bankoff, SB Nation chairman and former AOL (Or Aol? Are we really all calling it Aol now?) executive: There's less of an emphasis being dedicated to regional sports coverage, and we think we're filling an important need and doing it in a different way -- ground up, grass-roots, instead of top-down. While they might not always have access to big names (they have, however, landed several interviews with Oakland A's manager Billy Beane), much of SB Nation's growing success lies, in its own words, with providing an online destination for people to "gather 'round." Just look around the next time you're (roped into, in our case) watching sports with friends: at their core, everyone just wants someone to yell with.

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SB Nation Is Pretty Much Everywhere

Alex Alvarez

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Alex Alvarez