Posted in News
3 comments
01/13 2011

Sporting News And AOL Sports Join Forces. Bloggers, Other Fired Writers Rejoice!

Posted by Dan Levy.

Rejoice? No, what’s the opposite of that?

From SportsBusiness Daily, a partner with Sporting News:

Sporting News is making an aggressive push to become a top-10 sports website with a broad content-providing arrangement with AOL Sports. Executives were scheduled to inform staffs at both organizations of the agreement later today. The deal will create Sporting News on AOL within the next 60 days and give the venerable sports brand instant digital relevance. “We’ve made a lot of headway as far as adding video and developing a social media strategy,” said Sporting News President and Publisher Jeff Price. “Adding scale was the last thing advertisers were asking for, and this deal allows us to deliver that.”

Sports content for AOL has been under its internally developed Fanhouse brand for the past two years. Starting in March, Sporting News will provide and develop a majority of the content for the site from its current staff based in Charlotte. Sporting News will license the Fanhouse brand from AOL and use it as a home for the site’s “voice,” or its columnists. Sporting News is expected to add a handful of top columnists from AOL, but sources said a number of AOL Sports editorial staffers have already been seeking jobs at other sports sites. It was unclear if any AOL Sports management will join Sporting News.

Let’s recap that, with albeit a little bit of a skew, considering last year when Sporting News made a potential deal with Yahoo to try and keep the company afloat — a deal that fell through at the last minute — I was one of the writers sent packing.

So now, it seems, the AOL folks will be the ones sent packing. I’m sure it won’t be everyone, and I’m sure that most of the insanely talented folks writing at both companies will find jobs. Good writing always (read: usually) finds a home. They’re always welcome here.

This could be an exciting new business partnership. It could be. Or it’s a desperate attempt to stay afloat.

To be fair, I should do my due diligence on this story and reach out to someone at Sporting News for comment, but considering the last time this happened, no less than three members of the staff — including the aforementioned Mr. Price — either unknowingly provided misinformation, fabricated company plans or, let’s face it, flat-out lied. And that’s when I was still getting a paycheck from them, so I find it hard to believe that I’d get anything better than PR spin this time around.

Remember the exciting news that The Sporting Blog was going to SB Nation? They didn’t even have the courtesy to forward the old links, meaning that not only did our jobs disappear, but so did months and months of links to our work all over the internet. (Note: go to SB Nation and the archives of the old Sporting Blog are there, somewhere) (Note #2: Chris Mottram forwarded me a link to my very own SB Nation page so you can read my old stuff there! Huzzah.)

Maybe they’ll do better by those jettisoned this time around.

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Posted on January 13, 2011 at 5:20PM

 

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  1. Gunaxin Links
    01/13 2011

    Sporting News And AOL Sports Join Forces…

    This article has been featured on Gunaxin Links…

  2. Mike L. White
    01/13 2011

    Can anyone remember when SN was last relevant? Pre-internet, pre-blog maybe?

  3. Sabin Segal
    01/13 2011

    Please go back to the old format—it was more informative on more sports