In an effort to expand its reach into the high school sports market, ESPN recently acquired Torrance-based Student Sports Inc., a youth sports television production company and online producer of high school sports programming nationwide.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Andy Bark, chief executive of Student Sports, said he would be bringing the company’s 42 employees with him to ESPN.
Bark has been involved in youth sports marketing and event promotions since he started a four-page newsletter called Cal-Hi Sports more than 22 years ago. Since then he has expanded his operations to include online publishing and event planning and promotions of youth sporting events across the country, handling more than 160 corporate sponsored events nationwide.
Student Sports made its reputation by becoming the national source for high school sports information on recruiting and statistics. The company then moved into promoting all-star games and events for baseball, softball, basketball, football, soccer and other sports.
“High school sports is a very lucrative market if you have the know-how and the ability to tap into it,” Bark said. “We have the experience and the knowledge and now we have the support of ESPN.”
ESPN, a division of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co., plans to incorporate Student Sports and its assets, including StudentSports.com and DyeStat.com, into a newly created brand called ESPN Rise, which is schedule to launch in August to target the 12- to 17-year-old audience.
Changing Times
In a move that blurs the line between editorial and advertorial, the monthly Los Angeles Times Magazine is being stripped from the newspaper’s editorial department and handed over to the newspaper’s business side.
The magazine will publish its last issue in July, but it may be reincarnated in another format as early as August, Times executives said last week.
“It is a terribly sad day,” said Rick Wartzman, a previous editor of the magazine, when it was called West. “As a former editor and as an Angeleno, I feel that we have lost an important journalistic voice in our community.”
Los Angeles Times Media Group has already blurred that dividing line, giving its business operations editorial control over publications such as Times Community Newspapers, MetroMix and Hoy.
The news came as yet another in a string of disappointments for former Times staffers who have seen a number of rapid changes in editorial management, a string of layoffs and, most recently, a reduction of space dedicated to news.
The magazine, which had once been published weekly, was turned into a monthly and renamed West for the second time in February of 2006, when Wartzman moved from Times’ business section editor to the magazine helm.
Wartzman, who is now director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, said that the magazine had a strong sense of place and a literary feel to it that appealed to the discerning reader. “The magazine had voice-driven narratives, profiles, investigative reporting, bold photography and even fiction,” he said.
Times Editor Russ Stanton stated that the magazine had been losing money for years and was on track to “post another significant loss in 2008.”
Wartzman argues that the magazine may have been profitable if more resources had been devoted toward sales and marketing.
“It’s hard to make a profit when you don’t have the full support of the business side behind you,” he said. “They never really devoted enough attention to the magazine.”
Meanwhile, new hires will replace the departing staff. In his memo to employees, Stanton stated that he will work to find jobs for the magazine staff within the paper.
Annie Gilbar, a former editor of InStyle and L.A. Style magazines and a onetime host on the Home Shopping Network, was called the leading candidate to be named editor.
Lobby Money
Advances in digital technology have lowered the cost of production of both on-screen and lobby promotions, according to a report by the Cinema Advertising Council set for release today.
Advertising in movie theaters throughout Los Angeles and the nation increased 18.5 percent from $456 million in 2006 to $540 million in 2007, according to the council, a national trade organization representing theater owners and advertisers.
“The amount of advertising in theaters increases nearly as fast as the advances in technology and I think that these most recent numbers reflect that,” said Cliff Marks, president of sales at National CineMedia.
CineMedia is owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group, the three largest theater operators in the nation.
According to the council report, on-screen advertising revenues increased nearly 19 percent from $417.4 million in 2006 to $494.6 million in 2007, making up the lion’s share of revenue.
Meanwhile, off-screen revenues, from lobby promotions, grew from $38.2 million in 2006 to $45.3 million in 2007.
Moving Experience
One of the top two Hollywood trade publications, Variety, is expected to move its offices at 5700 Wilshire Blvd. down the street to the top floors of a 30-story office tower across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Reed Business Information, parent company of Variety and several other media trade publications, is expected to take over 55,000-square-feet of space, occupying the building’s top three floors by year’s end.
The building will also carry the Variety name.
The deal was reportedly valued at $11.6 million, according to Wayne Ratkovich, president of Ratkovich Co.
Staff reporter Brett Sporich can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.
