Here’s some interesting news. In a case of traditional media buying a quote-unquote, new media company, Time Inc. has purchased FanSided and its 300 affiliated websites. FanSided is a sports and lifestyle network with 15 million unique visitors 50 million page views a month. That’s quite impressive.
This is a deal that will help Time’s Sports Illustrated brand by spreading it towards a new audience and according to the official announcement, “will deepen Sports Illustrated’s local sports coverage and add more weight to the brand’s new customization platform” which is expected to launch later this year.
FanSided founders Adam and Zach Best said in their announcement that there will be bigger and better things to come for the company:
300+ sites, roughly 1,500+ contributors and millions and millions of readers later, FanSided officially joins the Time Inc. family. What does this mean for you? It means lots of great things ahead, but there are no immediate plans to change the way you currently access and use our FanSided sites. Our core team will be sticking around to ensure we deliver more coverage, better products and even higher quality to service you, the fan. Our longstanding partnership with Sports Illustrated will only grow. Strategically, we will be more ambitious in our effort to be the one-stop shop for the most fanatical of fans. Additionally, we’ll be a sibling brand to other iconic Time brands like Entertainment Weekly and People. Overall, this will add up to a bigger, better fan experience.
We want to thank you for allowing us to go from being a bootstrapped company run by two brothers to one of Time’s iconic brands. It was your loyalty as fellow fans and readers that got us here, along with the hard work and ingenuity of the terrific group of FanSiders we’ve been fortunate enough to call our team. We promise you that we will continue to do everything we can to make your experiences as fans as fun and fruitful as possible.
Time has been branching out with its 120 Sports operation plus a new documentary series, SI Films, which will be available on its various platforms.
And it appears that Time isn’t done with its acquisitions as it’s looking for more companies to buy and bring under its umbrella.
No financial terms of the Time/FanSided deal were disclosed.
[SI.com]
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.