Tagged: ‘ESPN The Magaz…’

posted by on March 9, 2013 1:10 PM

ICYMI: The Week on Front Row

Gonzaga University’s men’s basketball team has the program’s first-ever No. 1 national ranking, an accomplishment celebrated by the Spokane, Wash. school as the ESPNU Campus Connection video above illustrates.

Tonight in the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals, the Zags (29-2, 16-0) attempt to defend their top-ranked status when they meet upstart Loyola Marymount (11-22, 1-15) (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2, WatchESPN). Should Gonzaga end the Lions’ Cinderella run, it would play in the WCC Championship Game in Las Vegas on Monday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

While Gonzaga is leading the WCC to greater prominence, another athletic conference’s profile is changing.

The Big East officially announced on Friday that the Catholic 7 schools will leave the conference on June 30.

In this Outside The Lines podcast, former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun shares some of his favorite Big East memories and his thoughts on the future of the NCAA with host Bob Ley.

ESPN’s College GameDay is on hand for the last Big East regular-season Syracuse-Georgetown game today (12 p.m. ET, ESPN). It’s the opener of a CGD doubleheader; the crew will be in Chapel Hill, N.C. for the nightcap when Duke visits North Carolina.

On the women’s side, Big East Championship Week coverage starts Sunday, March 10, with three quarterfinal games on ESPNU and an exclusive game on ESPN3, along with the semifinals on ESPNU and the only women’s title game to be aired on ESPN.

ICYMI: Highlights from the past week on Front Row

• ESPN Radio listeners went “green” for Friday’s edition of Mike and Mike in the Morning. Regular co-host Mike “Greeny” Greenberg welcomed guest co-host Seth Greenberg to the show as a fill in for the absent Mike Golic.

• Wright Thompson’s recent feature on Michael Jordan lead to nearly 2.5 million page views across ESPN.com and ESPN mobile web sites. ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Patrick Stiegman shared more insight on ESPN’s approach to feature storytelling across platforms.

• ESPN and Full Sail University unveiled the new Full Sail University Sports Lab Powered by ESPN as part of a celebration of their collaboration. Check it out here.

• Columnist Chris Jones tells the story of a young tennis pro stepping away from the sport she loves due to an ongoing bout with depression in ESPN The Magazine’s latest issue, “One Day, One Game.” He shares some background on the piece.

Row of Four
Our favorites from across ESPN over the past week continue reading…

Filed in: ICYMI Highlights

posted by on March 7, 2013 12:00 PM

ESPN The Magazine columnist Chris Jones relates with young tennis star’s bouts with depression

ESPN columnist Chris Jones (ESPN)

ESPN The Magazine columnist Chris Jones (ESPN)

In ESPN The Magazine’s latest issue, “One Day, One Game” on newsstands Friday, columnist Chris Jones tells the story of a young tennis pro stepping away from the sport she loves due to an ongoing bout with depression.

Jones, who writes the back page Magazine column, The Fix, knows just how she feels. He shares some background on the column with Front Row.

Why did you choose this piece to discuss your personal battle with depression?
There is very little I have in common, at least on the surface, with a talented 22-year-old tennis pro named Rebecca Marino. But when she spoke about her struggles with depression, and about her difficulties with social media, I felt as though I could almost finish her sentences for her. I think our readers should be able to expect honesty from us — that we write what we truly believe. Well, I believe strongly that mental illness is something we should talk about, and it would have been dishonest for me to write about it without admitting that I’ve been there.

One Day, One Game ESPN The Magazine cover

ESPN The Magazine’s
One Day, One Game issue is on newsstands Friday

Take us through the process of writing this column.
I pitched this, and my editor, the excellent Ed McGregor [an ESPN The Magazine Deputy Editor], told me to give it a shot. I write columns all the time that don’t make it into The Magazine — there’s this graveyard of swings and misses clogging up my computer — and here I thought, I’m just going to write this as honestly as I can, and if Ed or [Mag Editor-In-Chief] Chad Millman doesn’t like it, then I’ll just write something else.

That freed me. I just poured it out. I sent it in and the guys were really busy, as usual, and it took them a bit to get back to me. Those waiting hours are stressful for a writer anyway, but here I was like, “Ruh-roh.” Then an email landed from Chad [reading]: “Wow, that was something,” and I took that as a good sign.

What was the initial reaction to your first-person feature for Esquire? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, ESPN The Magazine

posted by on March 5, 2013 12:15 PM

ESPN’s storytelling resonates with nearly 2.5 million page views for Wright Thompson’s feature on Michael Jordan

Wright Thompson's profile of Michael Jordan is available on ESPN.com and will appear in ESPN The Magazine.

Wright Thompson’s profile of Michael Jordan generated nearly 2.5 million page view across ESPN.com and ESPN mobile web sites.

As numbers go, Michael Jordan at 50 years old is huge.

Not just for Jordan, but for many sports fans who never realized he — or we — could be that old. Wright Thompson’s feature story, Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building, which appeared on ESPN.com and in ESPN The Magazine last month, captured this sentiment in a way that resonated with readers.

In fact, since the piece was published Feb. 15, it has created big numbers of its own, pulling in nearly 2.5 million page views across ESPN.com and ESPN mobile web sites, while engaging readers two to three times as long as the typical ESPN.com article.

Another huge number: Thompson’s article is nearly 8,000 words, making it a “long form” piece of journalism, which continues to be an important form of content for ESPN’s Digital and Print Media group as it continues to explore new and better ways to tell stories. (Another example hit ESPN.com today with Don Van Natta Jr.’s His Game, His Rules, on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.)

ESPN's Patrick Stiegman (Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)

ESPN’s Patrick Stiegman (Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)

We checked in with Patrick Stiegman, ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief, for more insight on ESPN’s approach to feature storytelling across platforms.

What is it about long form articles that resonates with ESPN’s readers?
It’s all about storytelling. “Long-form” is really an outdated term, especially in a digital age. Our emphasis is not on story length or news hole or word count, it’s about writing a story for what it’s worth. A truly compelling narrative — and Wright’s piece on Michael Jordan is one of the most provocative, insightful, raw and revealing profiles you’ll ever read — is irresistible, whether it’s 1,000 words or 10,000 words. From the stunning illustrations by Mark Smith to the pitch-perfect headline to the gifted reporting and writing to the deft editing by our digital and print enterprise teams, Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building was an exquisite example of one of the most challenging tasks a writer can face: Tell me something truly revelatory about one of the most famous people on the planet. Working with editors Jay Lovinger, Jena Janovy and Bruce Kelley, among others, Wright accepted that challenge, and quite frankly, crushed it.

It seems that more long form pieces have been featured recently on both ESPN.com and in The Magazine. Discuss the cross-platform approach. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on March 4, 2013 4:28 PM

ESPN by the numbers, March 2013

Digital Center 2 will add nearly 200,000 square feet of space to ESPN's Bristol, Conn. campus and be the new home of SportsCenter.

Digital Center 2 will add nearly 200,000 square feet of space to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. campus and be the new home of SportsCenter.

When you’ve been delivering sports fans their news, entertainment and game coverage for 33 years, you tend to accumulate a lot of impressive statistics and factoids.

To help translate the size and scope of what ESPN does, Front Row presents:

ESPN By the Numbers, March 2013

Make up. . .
• 8 US cable networks with more than 18,000 hours of live event programming and more than 11,900 of live studio hours
• ESPN is in 98,516,000 homes nationwide and ESPN2 is in 98,477,000
• ESPN Audio presents 9,000 hours of talk/news/events to 24 million listeners a week via 450 affiliates (360 of which are full-time) including owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas
• ESPN Digital Media accounted for 29 percent of all sports category usage in January 2013, more than the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 sports properties combined
• ESPN the Magazine delivers more than 14 million readers with the average issue.

Our people. . .
• 7,000 worldwide employees (more than 4,000 based at headquarters in Bristol, Conn.)
• More than 1000 public facing commentators, analysts, hosts and writers

Our Connecticut campus. . .
• 1.35 Million square feet
• 123 Acres (87 in Bristol, Conn. and 36 in Southington, Conn.)
• 16 Buildings
• 27 Satellite dishes
• Additional facilities in Los Angeles, Charlotte and Austin

Digital Center 1

  • 136,000 square feet
  • 4 studios
  • 8 production control rooms
  • 22 edit suites
  • 10 master control rooms

Digital Center 2 (Opening in 2014)

  • 193,000 square feet
  • 4 studios (including new home of SportsCenter)
  • 6 production control rooms

Programming and ratings in 2012. . .

• In the fourth quarter, ESPN averaged more than 980,000 households on a 24-hour basis, and more than 2.3 M homes in prime time.
• ESPN Networks averaged 1.34M HH overall and 2.84M HH in prime.
• In prime, ESPN was the top-rated cable net overall, and among M18-34, M18-49 and M25-54.
• ESPN had the top 10 most-watched programs on cable, 14 of top 15 and 22 of top 25
• SportsCenter aired its 50,000th program in September
• 113 million different people use ESPN media each week
• The average person spends 6 hours, 57 minutes with ESPN media each week

ESPN Digital and Social Media. . .
In January 2013:
• In total ESPN digital properties attracted 62.6 million unique visitors, logging 4.97 billion minutes of usage
• Users watched 292 million ESPN digital video clips in January
• ESPN television content generated 13 million social comments, making it the “most social” cable network and the second most social network overall in January
• ESPN video content on YouTube generated 30 million views

In 2012:

• ESPN.com continued to lead the Sports Category with an average minute audience of 77,000, 52 percent higher than its closest competitor
• The five ESPN Local sites (New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Dallas) averaged 8.8 million unique visitors per month
• Grantland.com averaged 2.2 million unique visitors and 26.8 million total minutes per month
• WatchESPN distribution (which includes live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Goal Line/Buzzer Beater) is now available to more than 50 million households nationwide
• ESPN Mobile ranked No. 1 across the mobile Web and apps for total minutes (642 million), unique visitors (13.3 million), and an average minute audience of 14,600

ESPN’s value. . . 
• Almost all Americans have heard of the ESPN Brand (98 percent); while a vast majority (93 percent) are familiar with it
• ESPN is the favorite network (broadcast or cable) among men
• In Beta Research Corp’s annual Cable Operator Evaluation Study, operators named ESPN the network with the most average perceived value among all networks measured for the 13th straight year
• ESPN also ranked the most important network in their cable system for the ninth straight year with 95 percent of operators describing ESPN as “very important” for subscriber retention and acquisition
• ESPN2 ranked second in average perceived value among cable operators for the eighth straight year. The network also ranked No. 5 as the most important network to operators among the 46 measured networks, up from No. 9 in 2011

Note: Digital traffic numbers are from comScore.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on February 27, 2013 9:23 AM

Daytona 500 champ Jimmie Johnson on being Bob Dylan, ESPN’s Greatest Athlete and his ‘Harlem Shake’

In late January, NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson walked the streets of New York for an ESPN The Magazine “Music Issue” photo shoot paying tribute to iconic album covers.

Sunday afternoon in Florida, the five-time Sprint Cup champion scored his second career Daytona 500 victory.

Less than 24 hours later in Connecticut, he navigated the familiar hallways of ESPN’s Bristol headquarters for a “Car Wash” (appearances across ESPN) befitting the latest driver to tame Daytona International Speedway. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on February 26, 2013 4:03 PM

ESPN The Mag’s ‘The Analytics Issue’ dissects the Miguel Cabrera versus Mike Trout AL MVP debate

ESPN The Magazine: The Analytics Issue

Tigers star and AL MVP Miguel Cabrera (left) and Angels sensation Mike Trout are on the cover of The Analytics Issue.
(ESPN The Magazine)

The second-annual “Analytics Issue” of ESPN The Magazine, currently on newsstands, looks at how next-level metrics are redefining what we think we know about sports. Front Row connected with The Mag’s Executive Editor Scott Burton to discuss the analytics of the “Analytics Issue.”

How does this “Analytics Issue” differ from the first?
We were thrilled by the way the first Analytics issue came out, largely because we placed a premium on storytelling. We followed that same philosophy this year; the issue features some of the best feature writing we’ve done all year, fueled by amazing access to some of the key players in analytics. That said, we worked hard on improving the presentation of the numbers, in the form of infographics. This issue also features what we hope will become a new franchise for The Mag: a narrative told exclusively through infographics.

How did you decide on WAR (Wins After Replacement) and the two cover subjects? Why was this the right time? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on February 19, 2013 1:35 PM

Through wind, snow and dark of night, ESPN employees forged on through ‘Winter Storm Nemo’

On Friday, Feb. 8, the East Coast was preparing for the arrival of “Winter Storm Nemo,” the blizzard that would dump as much as 40 inches of snow in some parts of Connecticut.

Almost immediately, the ESPN personnel jumped into action to keep the network’s Bristol headquarters up and running. This meant teams worked around the clock to clear snow, ensure employees’ safety and continue uninterrupted production.

In some cases, employees slept on air mattresses through the weekend. Nemo even kept ESPN colleagues in the Los Angeles and Charlotte production centers on their toes as they stepped in to ensure uninterrupted presentations of SportsCenter and other programming. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on February 16, 2013 11:45 AM

ICYMI: Week in Review

Caption?

ESPN Sport Science metrics will determine the winner from the 16 finalists in the Greatest Athlete of All Time series. (ESPN)

What’s a great 50th birthday present for an avid golfer? How about a chance to compete against Tiger Woods?

That’s what ESPN is giving birthday boy Michael Jordan on Sunday, matching MJ against Eldrick in the initial bracket-round contest of ESPN’s on-going “The Greatest Athlete of All Time” series.

“Strictly coincidental,” said Don Skwar, senior coordinating producer. “Well, maybe not strictly. We were originally going to start Feb. 5, but we didn’t want to run it while Jordan’s 50th birthday content was airing, so we figured we’d start on its last day, which happens to be his birthday.”

When ESPN Sport Science entered the project last spring, the research and production teams were charged with gathering data on 86 athletes (five in each of 16 categories, except football which had 11 athletes), but actually “did homework on five times that many” according to show host John Brenkus.

“We’ve been able to gather so much data on athletes over six years by either having them come through the lab or by doing segments on them, that we always wanted to take that data and settle the argument on who’s the greatest athlete,” Brenkus said.

ESPN's John Brenkus

John Brenkus

“We try to be both educational and entertaining, gathering information first, then presenting it in as visually a stimulating way as possible.” (ESPN Sport Science pieces — experiments on human performance using the latest scientific technology and seen across various ESPN platforms — have received three Emmys and been nominated nine times).

This Sunday, the 10 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. SportsCenters will air the Tiger-Jordan showdown, the winner of which will be revealed at the end of each of the segments.

While ESPN Sport Science analysis will determine daily advancers from Sunday through March 3, it was the fans’ vote which whittled down the original nominees and created some surprises along the way.

“I was pleasantly surprised that Jim Brown won the football category,” Skwar said. “ESPN.com gets a younger audience, so I thought voters might go with Jerry Rice or someone like that because Brown is from another era.”

Brenkus, who recently chatted with fans on ESPN.com regarding the bracket, said: “I was surprised LeBron did not fare better with the public. As purely an athlete he was very high on our metric system, but it seems the negative feelings toward him have not totally gone away.”

Brenkus warns the road to the ESPN Sport Science “Greatest Athlete of All Time” remains unpredictable.

“There are big surprises in each of the remaining rounds — someone people will not expect,” he says. “And there’s an athlete in the Final 4 no one would have picked, but once they see, they’ll get it that absolutely that athlete deserves to be there. That’s what’s been fun — making people think, ‘Wow, I didn’t know how good that athlete really was!’”

ICYMI: Highlights from the past week on Front Row

• In a Front & Center podcast ESPN Monday Night Football’s Jon Gruden talks about the upcoming fourth season of Gruden’s QB Camp beginning Thursday, April 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

• ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo participated in Friday’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Beforehand, Russillo offered a few words for his ESPN colleagues who set the over/under on his point total at five.

• ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com senior writer Wright Thompson discussed his recent Michael Jordan feature which chronicled Jordan’s journey as he reaches his 50th birthday.

• ESPN’s Bomani Jones shared details about the upcoming “Moment of Loud” vignette which will highlight some of the top accomplishments by African-American athletes. The vignette, scheduled to debut Monday, Feb. 18, is part of the ESPN’s annual Black History Month programming.

Row of Four
Our favorites from across ESPN over the past week continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, ESPN Sport Science, ICYMI Highlights

posted by on February 15, 2013 10:55 AM

Wright Thompson reflects on his Michael Jordan profile running on ESPN.com and in ESPN The Magazine

Wright Thompson's profile of Michael Jordan is available on ESPN.com and will appear in ESPN The Magazine.

Wright Thompson’s profile of Michael Jordan is available on ESPN.com and will appear in ESPN The Magazine.

In celebration of Michael Jordan’s 50th birthday this Sunday, ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com senior writer Wright Thompson chronicles Jordan’s journey as he reaches the milestone birthday.

The feature appears both on ESPN.com and in The Mag, occupying 10 pages in the publication’s upcoming “Analytics Issue” on newsstands Friday, Feb. 22.

Front Row asked Thompson to reflect on his experience with Jordan.

newlogo

How did you arrange for the access and how much time did you spend with him?
I started writing letters and talking about the idea to his people; they were intrigued in the beginning, and over a period of months, some comfort developed and I think they decided to say yes. They weren’t shy at all, and didn’t act like they minded someone seeing what Michael was like up close. It was loose and natural from the beginning.

What surprised you most about MJ? Had you spent any time with him previously? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on February 4, 2013 12:00 PM

Volunteers in Team ESPN Radio Reading Room produce audio versions of ESPN The Mag, ESPN Deportes Mag

The words in ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Deportes Magazine paint vivid pictures to complement rich photography and imaginative layouts.

Still, not every sports fan can appreciate those publications in print.

Last year, ESPN’s Corporate Outreach launched The Team ESPN Radio Reading Program. Employee volunteers read ESPN content, such as The Magazine, and the resulting audio files are distributed across Connecticut by a nonprofit organization — Connecticut Reading Information System (CRIS).

Vision-impaired fans or those who would not have access to the printed content are the beneficiaries, said Kevin Martinez, Senior Director of ESPN Corporate Outreach.

Employees sign up for the program and undergo a 30-minute training session before becoming one of the volunteer voices, Martinez said. They are instructed to read the copy in a straightforward manner. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes