Sporting News Online

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Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 06:43:16 +0200
From: Michael Uwe Moebius <m.moebius@uni-koeln.de>

Sporting News Online

http://www.sportingnews.com/

From: Jason Stone [mailto:jstone@Sportingnews.com]
Sent: Friday, May 01, 1998 10:18 AM
For Immediate Release:         Contact: Joanne Chaseman
April 30, 1998                          (212) 779-5222

THE SPORTING NEWS ONLINE RECEIVES HIGHEST AWARD:
1998 National Magazine Award for GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN NEW MEDIA

New York . . . The Sporting News Online was recognized today with a 1998
National Magazine Award, the most prestigious editorial award in the
magazine business.  The Sporting News Online captured the highly coveted
award for "general excellence in new media," which honors an online
publication that most effectively serves its intended audience and
reflects an outstanding level of interactivity, journalistic integrity
and service.  The Awards are sponsored by the American Society of
Magazine Editors.  This is the first year that "general excellence in
new media" has been an official ASME award category.

"From its up-to-the-minute sports scores to provocative and entertaining
columns and clever use of the online medium, The Sporting News Online
creates a tough-to-beat package," says the official press release from
the ASME.  The release also cites the "ease of navigation, splashy
graphics, and ability to break the large sporting world down into
digestible bites. One of the judges commented that "It's such a good
site, it makes a fan of the sports novice."

The Sporting News Online was launched on America Online (Keyword: TSN)  in
April 1996, and AOL members voted it "Best New Area" overall for that
calendar year. The website was launched in January 1997 at
http://www.sportingnews.com/ , and one month later NetGuide Live declared
it the best overall sports site in a review of "sports-site heavyweights"
of the Internet. The site was also a quick Yahoo Pick of the Week, and
more and more sports fans and advertisers are continually recognizing the
excellence of the site. Today TSN is a major sports-content provider to
Yahoo!, the largest website. 

Traffic for March 1998 exceeded March 1997 by an astounding 336%, and
exceeded even February 1998 by a whopping 56%.  New advertisers to the
site include Mazda and Kraft.

The ASME judges also commented: "Other notable attributes of the site
include the fact that visitors are never more than a click away from being
able to post comments to a bulletin board or e-mail their opinions
directly to a writer. The site also mines the print publication's 112-year
archive, and has a special area, The Vault, which contains much of the
incredible archival material.  No other sports site has the combination of
112 years of historical sports information and more than 150
correspondents around the country feeding the site information on a
minute-by-minute basis."

"We take special pride in this award, because it is much more than a
recognition of having a great site," said TSN Online General Manager Mark
Newman, who accepted the award at the ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel.  "It recognizes the achievement of everyone at The Sporting News
who saw this new medium as an opportunity rather than a task, whether
their roles were more specifically in print or online.  We've been able to
elevate our brand, interact with our community, be very real-time with our
content, target advertisers and a lot more. To become the first magazine
to ever receive this as an official award is a huge honor, and we hope to
lead the way in many more areas." 

The Sporting News is based in St. Louis, and has been published
continually since 1886.  It is the only weekly magazine to cover
baseball, college and pro football, college and pro basketball and
hockey 52 weeks per year.  The Sporting News is published by Times
Mirror Magazines, the nation's leading publisher of special-interest,
leisure-oriented magazines and websites.

--
Jason Stone                     http://www.sportingnews.com
Marketing Coordinator/Online    America Online (keyword:TSN)
The Sporting News               jstone@sportingnews.com