Don't Look Now, but the Sporting News Is Relevant Again

A couple years ago, I was talking to a friend and mentioned having seen something in The Sporting News. My friend said he thought The Sporting News had gone out of business years earlier.

That was wrong (he was thinking of Inside Sports), but it wasn't too far off: Once the Internet came along, no one wanted to wait for the mailman to deliver their sports stats, and The Sporting News -- which was once best known for its box scores -- became close to obsolete.

But Sporting News (they've dropped the "The" from their name) is making something of a comeback online by assembling some of the best sports writing talent on the web. The latest example comes from Dan Shanoff, who announced today that he's joining up with SportingNews.com and The Sporting Blog. Shanoff writes that he's not alone:

Three recent additions are notable – king-of-their-sport talents who I really respect and admire: Spencer Hall (aka Orson Swindle) of Every Day Should Be Saturday, THE definitive college football blog; Eric McErlain of Off Wing Opinion, THE definitive hockey blogger; and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, who blew up in 2007 as arguably the most influential voice in NFL media.

But, wait, there's even more: Brian from Awful Announcing, the premier sports-media-criticism blog, is involved. SportingNews.com had already been using David Pinto from Baseball Musings. They have Will Leitch going down to the Super Bowl.

It's a smart business strategy from Sporting News, which all of a sudden feels like a must-read sports site. (It also may explain why Shanoff thinks Sporting Blog is "in" and FanHouse is "out".) Sporting News is never going to win a bidding war for the Rick Reillys of the world with the Sports Illustrateds and ESPNs of the world, but it can attract high-quality sports writers. And it has.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-10-2008 @ 11:55AM

Daniel said...

Dan Shanoff is not evidence of The Sporting News assembling "some of the best sportwriting on the web." I'd rather read the nutrition information on a packet of sugar.

1-10-2008 @ 12:15PM

Unsilent Majority said...

They've also snagged Large from No Mas.

1-10-2008 @ 12:37PM

Don said...

How much longer til they steal Michael David Smith from us? He's already advertising for them! I kid, I kid.

1-10-2008 @ 12:48PM

NaviGATR said...

The offer is already in the mail. What size Sporting News shirt do you want?

1-10-2008 @ 12:41PM

JCN said...

Everything from No Mas is awesome.

1-10-2008 @ 2:33PM

john.epax said...

Thanks to this post, I now know to drop Sporting News from my blogs to read. Otherwise I might accidently be exposed to Shanoff's writing. Thanks for the warning, MDS.

1-10-2008 @ 3:45PM

Shanoff is so bad I can't even read him in that "love to hate him" way like Bill Simmons. I don't want him getting the pageclicks. It's hard to respect a lady that converts to Gator-fandom strictly to impress her husband and future in-laws.

1-10-2008 @ 5:14PM

Dennis said...

For my money, FanHouse is still better than The Sporting Blog or whatever it's called.

1-10-2008 @ 6:30PM

PantsB said...

"How much longer til they steal Michael David Smith from us? He's already advertising for them! I kid, I kid."
But not really. Heavy hitters like Shanoff! He has such influence on the web every since he got let go by ESPN Page 2 a year and a half ago. Its nice that he's no longer unemployed.