Quickly after ESPN’s successful launch of ESPNChicago.com, the multi-platform sports giant is planning to expand to the New York, Los Angeles and Dallas markets by playing off its large brand, network of content, news wires and a local team of reporters and bloggers.
ESPNChicago.com currently reports on the city’s seven pro sport teams and its nine college teams.
The New York Times‘ Brooks Barnes reported on the site’s astounding growth, saying:
“In less than three months, ESPN Chicago has become the city’s top sports site, attracting about 590,000 unique visitors in June, according to data from from comScore, an Internet measurement company. Second place went to the Tribune‘s online sports section with 455,000 unique visitors.”
The story continued:
“Once ESPN establishes itself in local markets, it plans to move deeper into local sports — down to the high school level and perhaps beyond — by using social networking and other technology to inform its journalism. Just as CNN offers news from everyday people through its iReport service, ESPN could augment its local coverage by tapping sports fans. Picture fathers uploading scores from their daughters’ soccer game.”
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how ESPN’s locally targeted sites affect news organizations and their local sports coverage.
