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The Sporting News continues to suck more and more

Yancy Street Gang Mar 08 2007 01:20 PM

I stopped reading the Sporting News back in 1991 (I think that was the year) when they "reformatted" and dumbed everything down. But I continued to buy their Baseball Guide and Baseball Register every year. (And, through the magic of eBay, I was able to get old copies of the Guides, so that I now have every year since 1963 in my collection.) So this year I've been waiting to get my 2007 copy. The Register came out in January, like it usually does, and I bought a copy. The Guide usually was late February or early March, but when I went to Amazon.com I saw that it was published on February 1, but won't ship for five to eight weeks. Huh? Today I called the Sporting News. It was my first direct contact with them in 16 years. They told me that they no longer publish the Baseball Guide. I guess from this point on I'll stock my bookshelves with Baseball America's annual almanac, which is probably every bit as good, if not better, than the Guide. But I have to wonder why The Sporting News even stays in business. They publish a sucky periodical that nobody reads anymore. And now they've eliminated one of their classic and enduring publications. It's a shame what's happened to The Sporting News, which I used to LOVE. Through their own foolish decisions, they've made themselves irrelevant. And they've been irrelevant so long that I doubt that there's any coming back. Not in this age of the Internet.

Edgy DC Mar 08 2007 01:32 PM

Because a 100-year-old-plus brand sometimes is a more value commodity than the product it brands. Is there anything more professional in the history of whoredom tham than Tom Seaver pitching The Sporting News? Young and without guile, it's amazing I didn't sign up for a 100 years.

Frayed Knot Mar 10 2007 10:27 AM

What I don't understand is how The Sporting News still makes money. I've told the story before about how I just followed a link to a free 1-year subscription a couple years back. Sales can't be all that good if you're just giving it away to people who stumble on a free ad. During that year I had numerous opportunities to extend at ridiculously cheap rates which I ddclined to take once I realized that the quality of the magazine was such that even my free subscription was overcharging me. Plus the mag is virtually devoid of ads so it's not like they're making up for the lack of sales rates that way. Another thing they run in addition to the magazine is 'Sporting News Radio' - a network of stations around the country devoted to sports talk - although a trip to their web site doesn't appear to provide any guide as to which stations those are and where they can be found. And, between the local sports stations which are in virtually every decent sized town these days and the always-present ESPN network of stations, I picture SN-Radio as an equivelent to the UPN-9 of sports talk.

SteveJRogers Mar 10 2007 11:11 AM

SNR is in New York at 620AM though clearly never made any inroads against WFAN and never had the punch that 1050 has. They used to have the Islander radio package before it went to 1050 and I think they also had Liberty WNBA games on. About the only salvo they ever fired across WFAN's bow, well if you can call it that, is that Bobby Valentine actually spurred WFAN for about a season IIRC and did his weekly report on WSNR 620 and not WFAN.

Johnny Dickshot Mar 10 2007 11:12 AM

I believe most mags lose $$ on subscription/delivery, and if they make money on it, it's just a tiny part of revenues. They give it away so they can go to advertisers with inflated numbers. Eventually, when Peter needs a loan from paul, the whole thing will crash. Print journalism is deader than Brad Delp.

Frayed Knot Mar 10 2007 12:35 PM

]SNR is in New York at 620AM They were there a few years ago but aren't anymore. And, even when they were on that frequency and briefly had BV & the Liberty, that was before it was affiliated with The Sporting News. It was then a Chicago-based network called 'One on One Sports'. TSN later bought One-on-One out and the station disappeared from the NYC airwaves soon thereafter/ ]most mags lose $$ on subscription/delivery ... They give it away so they can go to advertisers with inflated numbers Agreed, except that part of my point is that the mag doesn't seem to have any advertisers either.

Edgy DC Mar 10 2007 01:47 PM

The answer is probably that it doesn't make money, but the brand, once properly leveraged, can, and so it's worth keeping afloat as a loss leader. The last two paragraphs of their Wikipedia page support this: In September 2006 American City Business Journals Inc., agreed to acquire Sporting News magazine, its online and book publishing units. and Sporting News Radio Network from Vulcan Sports Media Inc. Terms of the acquisition, which was completed in early October, were not disclosed. "Sporting News is a strong brand that we believe has considerable upside in print, online and on-air platforms," said Ray Shaw, American City Chairman and CEO. American City is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.

Yancy Street Gang Mar 11 2007 09:57 AM

The brand isn't nearly as strong as it was 15 years ago, when the post-Spink owners began to sabotage it. I no longer care much what happens to The Sporting News, but my preference would be to see it shut down and put out of its misery.

Johnny Dickshot Mar 11 2007 11:14 AM

Vulcan Media, I believe, was Paul Allen. American City Biz Journals is a division of my former employer, so we had our checks rubber-stamped by the same guy. AmCity also operates Street & Smith's and other sport-biz titles.

Edgy DC Mar 11 2007 11:42 AM

I remember an essay by the last family owner (apparently no heir wanted the headache) proudly praising the sale to a responsible conglomerate who would carry the magazine's standards into the next century blahblah. I know the brand doesn't hold the nealry same cache for you and me, but if you have a sports media startup, it's going to get a far bigger boost in the public consciousness with the TSN brand affixed to it than it would with Crane Pool Medias or something.

SteveJRogers Mar 12 2007 09:35 PM

From [url=http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/week4/index.html]A baseball bookshelf blooger[/url] ] The Sporting News and its parent company, American City Business Journals, have decided to suspend publication of the Baseball Guide and the Complete Baseball Record and Fact Book. There will be no 2007 edition of the Guide, and the 2007 edition of the Record and Fact Book will not appear in print. These decisions were made "for business reasons." TSN had been publishing the Record Book, which went through several variations, for almost 100 years (1909) and began its version of the Guide in 1942; prior to that it had been produced by Spalding. The hopes are that the publications will appear on TSN's website (sportingnews.com). Un-freaking...Ah well, the shame is that it's been The Official one for sometime now. I guess the feeling is that there are sites out there such as MLB.com's historical pages and baseball-reference.com that they feel that there is no justification or whatever.

silverdsl Mar 13 2007 11:01 AM

Along the same lines of all the info. from the record book being available online, considering the Sporting News magazine is outdated even before it's printed due how quickly everything in that's available on websites much quicker too, I wonder how long until they discontinue the magazine too, and just use the brand for their other interests?

Frayed Knot Mar 13 2007 04:44 PM

While we're on the subject of magazines, whodafuck is SI kidding with last week's cover story about how global warming and its affect on how sports will be - And already are being!! - played. Parts of the multi-story piece are understandable; thinking of building more 'Green-friendly' stadiums in the future, and also some stuff on golf course planning & mgmt. But they also threw in a bunch of stuff alarmist headlines including wondering about bigger stadiums to hold batted balls traveling further (Could Mays have caught the Wertz ball today?!?!) and a cover photo of Dontrelle Willis up to his waist in water in the middle of a diamond. Now I realize they didn't mean that picture to be taken literally, but it sure smells like they were under orders to do a 'Ripped from the Headlines' story from their Time Inc. parent corp.