SB Nation, an online sports media company, is going local. The company is going to be launching 20 sites in 20 days in major cities. The first six go up today in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Detroit and Phoenix. From the press release:
“Unlike traditional media organizations SB Nation reports from the fan perspective, building communities and engaging fans socially. All of the regional sites will continue this model and blend news, opinion and conversation among fans. The new regional sites will join the more than 250 team-centric and sport specific communities SB Nation owns and operates, each with their own name, URL, writers and guidelines.”
In keeping with the social theme, SB Nation will be holding meetups in each newly-launched city. Full press release after the jump.
PRESS RELEASE
SB NATION TO DEBUT 20 NEW REGIONAL SITES IN 20 DAYS DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE
Sites Offer Authentic Fan Perspective on Local Sports
Washington, D.C. (June 7, 2010) – SB Nation, the nation’s largest and fastest growing online sports media company, today announced the launch of 20 new regional sites providing robust local sports coverage with SB Nation’s authentic fan perspective. Each site will deliver a compelling blend of news, opinion and conversation that extends SB Nation’s pioneering fan-driven approach to sports coverage on the local and regional level. The announcement was made today by Jim Bankoff, Chairman and CEO of SB Nation.
The initial wave of regional sites will launch on June 7 in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Phoenix and Detroit. Starting on June 10, SB Nation will introduce 14 more regional sites during the following three weeks: Houston and Dallas – June 10, Kansas City – June 14, St. Louis – June 15, Minneapolis – June 16, Cleveland -June 17, Pittsburgh – June 21, Philadelphia – June 22, Tampa – June 23, Atlanta – June 24, Denver – June 28, Los Angeles – June 29, Seattle – June 30 and Bay Area – July 1. To celebrate the launch of its regional sites, SB Nation will bring local sports fans together for special “meet up” events in each city. These events will further expand the SB Nation community experience and will feature giveaways, raffles and food and drink specials.
“SB Nation delivers sports news, opinion and analysis to highly-targeted audiences and engages them socially with an approach unlike that of any other sports media company,” said Jim Bankoff, Chairman and CEO of SB Nation. “We plan to build strong regional communities to complement our team sites and showcase high quality content and intelligent conversation, built on the common interests that define the sports experience in each city. Alongside our team sites and SB Nation’s flagship national sports site, SBNation.com, our regional sites will offer fans a three-dimensional relationship with their teams, their sports and their city.”
Unlike many traditional media organizations SB Nation’s revolutionary grassroots approach to sports coverage places the fan first, with compelling local content centered around the issues that matter most to the fans in each of its 250-plus team-focused communities. SB Nation’s regional sites will provide real time sports news by aggregating the highest quality sports coverage from around the web, offer original content, commentary and analysis, and introduce new features, franchises and tools to generate dialogue and debate among sports fans. The sites will also place special emphasis on showcasing guest contributors, and will provide a forum for long-form commentary by each site’s staff of writers and editors.
All of the SB Nation regional sites will feature the company’s innovative StoryStream real time news format. Launched on SBNation.com to great acclaim last fall, StoryStream manages the vast, accelerated flow of information on the web by harnessing the best updates from around the internet wherever and whenever they occur. This in turn provides sports fans with an exciting new way to follow the stories they care about most, as they unfold.