With women’s sports reaching new heights, ratings-wise, audience-wise, and financially, it makes sense that media companies are seeing the writing on the wall and stepping up their efforts to provide coverage and focus.
The latest is Gannett and USA Today, which announced the launch of USA Today Studio IX on Monday.
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen a considerable surge of reader interest in our coverage of women’s sports,” said USA Today Sports executive editor and vice president Roxanna Scott. “While covering some of the biggest names in sports, such as Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, and JuJu Watkins, to the up-and-coming high school athletes who will be the next generation of stars, we see the demand for coverage that goes beyond the surface.”
The launch coincided with the 2025 WNBA Draft, which the media company covered extensively. That evening, they celebrated the launch with a WNBA draft watch party.
While a quick perusal of the site on Tuesday showed an abundance of WNBA coverage, the company also cited the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, and March Madness as other women’s sports areas it intends to focus on. The vertical also appears to be pulling girls’ and women’s sports content from Gannett’s other media properties nationwide.
“I’m proud to be part of a women-led sports department at USA Today that has been pushing boundaries for decades,” said USA Today senior editor Alicia Del Gallo, who leads Studio IX. “Readers were telling us they wanted an easier way to find our industry-leading coverage of women’s sports, so we needed to deliver. Sports departments often lead innovation and experimentation in newsrooms, and USA Today Studio IX will take that to a new level.”
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.