Real-World Solution

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 2003

ONLINE

Two Against One Giant

FOXSports.com and SportingNews.com have formed an alliance aimed at making their mutual rival, ESPN.com, uneasy. The news sites have teamed up to provide what they say will be one of the Internet's most highly trafficked and powerful sports networks. Currently ESPN is the online all-star that has successfully cross-promoted its Web site, cable channel, and magazine. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, ESPN.com led online sports sites during the week ending August 3, attracting nearly 3.8 million at-home Internet users. By comparison SportingNews.com garnered 321,000 unique visitors from home during the same period.

"This has enabled FOXSports.com to benefit from the strength of SportingNews.com, and SportingNews.com to benefit from the strength of Foxsports.com," says Lou D'Ermilio, spokesman for Fox Sports. "FOXSports.com is offering free content to SportingNews.com, and Sportingnews.com is lending its writers and fantasy games to FOXSports.com."

The two sites will also enjoy the cross-promotional muscle of their respective television, print, radio, and online assets. Both parent companies will offer advertising packages that could include opportunities with FOX Sports broadcast, FOX Sports Net cable television, the co-branded Web sites, and Sporting News Magazine.

Fox Sports Interactive Media will operate the jointly branded site at FOXSports.com, and will have primary responsibility for selling advertising across the sites with online revenue being shared by both parties. Sporting News' online unit will operate SportingNews.com, and will feature its array of fantasy sports games and subscription-only insider sports information.

"Together, FOXSports.com and SportingNews.com will give ESPN.com an incredible amount of competition," says Sporting News spokesman Drew Kerr. - Veronica Nome

MARKETING

Bring Out the Blondes

Most magazine publishers look for opportunities to expand their brands and offer cool marketing packages for advertisers. For instance, a food magazine can offer tasting events or cooking contests. But Playboy magazine has an advantage in this department: its Playmates. The magazine has created a multiplatform deal with Anheuser-Busch, built around "Michelob Light's 'Triple Platinum'" sweepstakes, featuring the Dahm Triplets (December 1998). The deal includes advertising in the magazine, online, and live events. "This is the third consecutive year that we've done this," says Diane Silberstein, publisher and vice president of the publishing group. Three contest winners will win a trip for two to Los Angeles to attend Hugh Hefner's New Year's Eve party with the triplets at the Playboy Mansion. Not surprisingly, the contest gets a lot of response. "Last year they received 31,000 entries," Silberstein says. "Very few men will ever be invited to the Playboy Mansion, and this is kind of every man's fantasy." While she won't divulge the financial details of the partnership, she says the benefits are huge for both Playboy and Anheuser-Busch. In addition to full-page ads in the September, October, and December issues, there will be a co-branded Michelob Light site within Playboy.com, regularly updating the contest. "This company excels in multiplatform programs that we deliver to advertisers; the use of Playmates is part of that," she says. "Playmates are a phenomenal asset and because they're Playboy branded it is something no one else can provide." - STP