Cox Media Group, owners of some of the biggest television and radio stations in the South, is launching their own national sports site which will be launching in the fall.
Their first hires include Bleacher Report contributor and Kennesaw State graduate Raj Prashad and writer for the Atlanta Hawks official website Robby Kalland, who filled us in on some details about the site.
- The site will be headquarted in Atlanta.
- The site will be 100% focused on SEC football and college football in the fall when it launches
- Once they've established themselves, they will expand to other sports such as the NBA and the NFL
This will be a great new tool which Cox Media Group, owner of at least 10 television stations in SEC country (specifically in Georgia, Florida, Texas), can use to boost the amount of sports content available on their stations' websites.
For example, WSB-TV, Cox's Atlanta station, now has the ability to post an article about the Georgia Bulldogs from someone who lives in the area and covers the team daily. The common practice for local TV stations and their online sites (if their sports anchors don't write for the site) is to post articles from a wire service like the AP which summarize sporting events. This is useful for viewers who want a recap of the game but it doesn't feel local and authentic like this new content will.
Cox also has a history of starting websites of national interest with a local feel having launched a center-right conservative political news site known as Rare.us.
I went through the tweets of the two writers mentioned above and they seem to be very cool, young individuals who you would interact with at your local sports bar. This leads me to conclude that this site won't be your typical buttoned-down, filtered site and will sound more like uncensored sports talk radio than HBO's Real Sports. I'm just making assumptions but if I'm right, that's a good thing.
We need more young and uncensored voices in sports media who can say what they want even if it's controversial. Cox is still a big company but it's not a conglomerate like the companies who control the sports media landscape such as: Fox, Disney and Comcast.
We'll see how this all works out but obviously any new venture hiring young journalists sounds exciting to me.
Ironically as this site launches with stories exclusively about SEC football, Cox Media Group's most prominent writer/insider about SEC football, Tony Barnhart, was been hired away before the upcoming season by ESPN. Would he have stayed if he knew Cox was launching a brand new national sports vehicle? (To be honest, he probably would've since he'll be a major force on the new SEC Network but I'm sure being the face of a national sports site like Bill Simmons or Peter King would've made him think a little harder)
UPDATE: Tony Barnhart will continue with Cox after rejoining AJC during SEC Media Days according to his Twitter page, @MrCFB. It appears that he'll write generally about CFB for AJC while his SEC stories are for The SEC Network/SECSports.com. Apologies for the error.
For example, WSB-TV, Cox's Atlanta station, now has the ability to post an article about the Georgia Bulldogs from someone who lives in the area and covers the team daily. The common practice for local TV stations and their online sites (if their sports anchors don't write for the site) is to post articles from a wire service like the AP which summarize sporting events. This is useful for viewers who want a recap of the game but it doesn't feel local and authentic like this new content will.
Cox also has a history of starting websites of national interest with a local feel having launched a center-right conservative political news site known as Rare.us.
I went through the tweets of the two writers mentioned above and they seem to be very cool, young individuals who you would interact with at your local sports bar. This leads me to conclude that this site won't be your typical buttoned-down, filtered site and will sound more like uncensored sports talk radio than HBO's Real Sports. I'm just making assumptions but if I'm right, that's a good thing.
We need more young and uncensored voices in sports media who can say what they want even if it's controversial. Cox is still a big company but it's not a conglomerate like the companies who control the sports media landscape such as: Fox, Disney and Comcast.
We'll see how this all works out but obviously any new venture hiring young journalists sounds exciting to me.
Ironically as this site launches with stories exclusively about SEC football, Cox Media Group's most prominent writer/insider about SEC football, Tony Barnhart, was been hired away before the upcoming season by ESPN. Would he have stayed if he knew Cox was launching a brand new national sports vehicle? (To be honest, he probably would've since he'll be a major force on the new SEC Network but I'm sure being the face of a national sports site like Bill Simmons or Peter King would've made him think a little harder)
UPDATE: Tony Barnhart will continue with Cox after rejoining AJC during SEC Media Days according to his Twitter page, @MrCFB. It appears that he'll write generally about CFB for AJC while his SEC stories are for The SEC Network/SECSports.com. Apologies for the error.
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