A veteran sports media executive has a new role. That would be Mark Pesavento.
Pesavento’s past leadership roles include time with The Los Angeles Times (1999-2005), Yahoo Sports (2005-2011), USA Today Sports Media Group (2011-15), Fox Sports (2015-2017), and NFL Media (2018-2019).
Pesavento has been focusing on consultancy work for the past few years, but he announced earlier this week that he’s now taken a role as executive editor, digital at Sports Illustrated:
Thank you to @Chris_Pirrone and the SI team for your faith in me. Looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
— Mark Pesavento (@markpesavento) July 25, 2023
Pesavento seems like a logical pick there for SI given what he’s done in the digital space in the past. Some of his past roles include managing editor, blogs at Yahoo (2009-11) during some of the heyday of the famed Yahoo Sports Blogs, vice-president (content) and vice-president (digital strategy) at USA Today SMG (2011-13 and 2013-15 respectively) which included a key role in the 2013 launch of For The Win, senior vice president (digital production) at Fox Sports (2015-17) when they had a great writing-focused website (before they blew that up), and vice president (digital content) for NFL Media (2018-19).
At SI, Pesavento will be working with some people he knows. Those include Arena Group (SI operational parent) senior vice president Chris Pirrone, who’s also the general manager of the Sports Illustrated Media Group. Pirrone was the general manager of the USA Today SMG from 2012-2022 before taking this SI role last summer, so he obviously worked closely with Pesavento during the latter’s time there. It’s interesting to see Pesavento come on board here at SI, and it will be worth watching to see where he takes SI’s digital efforts.
[Sports Business Journal, Mark Pesavento on Twitter]
