By JOE STRUPP
Editor & Publisher

Story posted on Jan. 8, 2009

NOTE: The story appeared on the Jan. 7, 2009 edition of "Editor & Publisher."

NEW YORK The Sports Network (TSN), which provides online sports content, is launching a new service aimed at offering sports information to newspapers, according to a release.

"We see this as just the beginning of the inevitable," Ken Zajac, Director of Sales for TSN, said in a release. He added that it will offer "all the content that publications from a 13 thousand to a two million circulation base require and, at the same time, we are more than willing to enhance our package for them with branding of their Internet sites.

"The industry," he added, "is very much aware of us and a host of newspapers throughout North America are already our clients. Like it or not, the economy dictates need and responsiveness to it."

Paul Colford, an Associated Press spokesman, said, "The AP has the finest sports report available anywhere. We recognize the challenges facing all news media in this economic climate."

The Sports Network's announcement states it "has indicated that it will offer, within its sports, such needed items as national and international stories, sports columns, agate that can be customized but which already includes standings/major results/schedules/stats and more, round-ups, summaries for MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL, top 25 basketball and football, national briefs daily, this day in sports history, photos in association with Getty Images and include coverage of some 60 plus special events as part of their branded technology, as part and parcel of the overall package and price."

The service will be priced based on newspaper circulation, the company added. TSN's announcement also included links to examples of its content on current newspaper client Web sites such as The New York Times, Philly.com, and the Los Angeles Times.

The Philly.com page is found at:
www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?
c=philly&page=nba/indexpic.htm

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

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