ESPN Launching Corporate Blog
Want a front-row seat to the inner workings at ESPN? You’ll get one this month.
On March 30, ESPN will unveil its corporate blog, ESPNFrontRow.com. The blog will focus on news about ESPN, employees at ESPN and behind-the-scenes activity at the sports media empire. ESPNFrontRow.com also will feature a comment-posting function.
The blog will be managed by ESPN’s communications department. It will be updated daily.
In a rather tongue-in-cheek video about the new blog, ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne said: “There’s this curtain that’s been keeping the public away from us. It’s time to lift it.”
ESPNFrontRow.com will debut with a collection of real-time photos that depict “A Day in the Life” of ESPN.
Sheldon Spencer, a journalist with more than 25 years of experience, will be the site’s primary “voice.” Spencer, most recently an NFL editor at ESPN.com, previously was a staff writer for the San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and National Sports Daily.
“The goal for ESPNFrontRow.com is to provide fans a window into ESPN,” said Mike Soltys, a vice president at ESPN. “We will provide credible, relevant, informative and fun content that will take readers inside ESPN.”
Posts on the site will be distributed via Facebook and Twitter.
The arrival of the corporate blog follows the February 2011 announcement that ESPN had teamed up with the Poynter Institute – a highly respected nonprofit school for journalists – for “a new step in media transparency.” Through this partnership, Poynter faculty will review ESPN’s multimedia content and publicly comment on the media conglomerate’s work.
John Walsh, executive vice president and executive editor at ESPN, said: “Our goal is to improve our content through increased accountability, transparency and timeliness.”
The institute’s partnership expands the role of ESPN ombudsman, a sort of internal watchdog representing the company’s audience.
ESPN Inc., based in Bristol, Conn., comprises cable TV networks, radio networks, websites, a magazine, sports-themed restaurants and other properties. ABC Inc. owns an 80 percent stake in ESPN; ABC is part of The Walt Disney Co. The Hearst Corp. owns a 20 percent interest in ESPN.
In 2010, ESPN’s six U.S. cable networks were watched by a combined average of nearly 1.3 million homes a day.
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