The NFL has brought in a big name to run their digital content. That would be Mark Pesavento, whose resume includes stints as the managing editor of Yahoo Sports, the vice-president of digital strategy for USA Today Sports Media Group, and the senior vice president of content for Fox Sports Digital. (He’s also worked for other outlets, including The Los Angeles Times and The Sporting News.)
Pesavento was one of the senior Fox staffers who left ahead of their pivot to video last summer, and he’s now wound up in a senior role with the NFL:
Impossibly excited to begin a new chapter with @NFL as VP of Digital Content. Honored to join such a talented team. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a reality.
— Mark Pesavento (@markpesavento) January 11, 2018
This is perhaps yet another sign of leagues becoming more like media organizations. The NFL is one of the many leagues out there creating a ton of website content, with several respected reporters writing for them, and it’s notable that they’ve now went out and got a well-known media executive to head that up. And it will be interesting to see what Pesavento brings to the NFL’s site; his work at Yahoo, USA Today (especially with For The Win) and Fox has received a lot of praise over the years.
This also is one more prominent name from Fox’s digital operation finding a high-profile job elsewhere; others have included Mike Foss (who worked with Pesavento at USA Today as managing editor of For The Win before joining Fox as VP of news properties in November 2015), who left Fox to become ESPN’s director of social media and YouTube last June, and Pete Vlastelica, the Fox executive vice president of digital who left to be CEO of Activision Blizzard’s esports division Major League Gaming back in September 2016. We’ll see what Pesavento does in his new role at the NFL.
[Mark Pesavento on Twitter; photo from a conference he spoke at in 2016]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.