Logging on to the Web for high school sports news doesn't usually yield much content. A handful of high profile teams get some national coverage and there's a bevy of blogs devoted to recruiting, but stories on your hometown team are still best found in a local newspaper.
That is about to change, however. In what could be called a prep content arms race, established mainstream media outlets have been scrambling to beef up their offerings by purchasing sites dedicated to covering high school sports.
Some of the biggest acquisitions include the following:
• ESPN recently purchased a number of properties that cover prep sports and are using those acquisitions as part of a multi-platform high school sports content initiative named ESPN Rise.
• Last year, CBS Corp., purchased MaxPreps, making the online high school sports Web site part of the CBS College Sports Network.
• Gannett Company, publisher of USA Today and nearly 100 other daily newspapers, has recently purchased a controlling interest in Schedule Star LLC, which operates HighSchoolSports.net.
• Sports Illustrated is providing funding for Takkle.com, a social networking Web site for high school athletics and has been promoting the site in its magazine and on its Web site.
• Media giant Hearst Corporation has launched the Web site HighSchoolPlaybook.com, which includes team pages, stats, messaging, and video clips of athletic teams in specific markets, focusing mainly on football.
Richard Deitsch, Media Writer for Sports Illustrated, says these companies are trying to capitalize on the increased appetite for high school athletics by college fans and also appeal to 12- to 17-year-olds, a coveted viewing demographic. "High school coverage occupies an interesting space because despite the gains in popularity, there still isn't one single media company that dominates it yet," he says.
ESPN Rise is attempting to corner the market by uniting many entities into its site. It features a heavy social networking component and content from ESPN.com, Scouts Inc., Hoopgurlz.com, and RISEmag.com. ESPN Rise will also provide high school coverage on ESPN TV programs like "SportsCenter."
"We want to cover stories from every angle to show the purity of sports at this level and get athletes excited about playing and participating," says ESPN Senior Vice President James Brown, who heads ESPN Rise. "We're also looking to grow our female audience and that means more coverage and publicity for girls' sports and the athletes who participate in them."
A national Web site with a localized presence, HighSchoolSports.net is tapping into the scheduling, scorekeeping, and statistical resources of its parent company, Schedule Star LLC, while also providing journalistic content from newspapers and TV stations owned by Gannett. "It's all about being hyper local for us," says Adolph Santorine, President of Schedule Star LLC. "We pull all of our resources and aggregate them together.
"For example, when you look at a major market like Denver, where we have a TV station as an affiliate and relationships with 80 Gannett properties and 70 other daily newspapers, we have a lot of information, all in one place," continues Santorine. "So not only do we end up with stories, we have video, as well as stats and scores that are verified by the local media property."
Santorine says each market has its own customized feel. In Cincinnati, for example, students from 15 area high schools participate in a program called Hotshots, whereby they shoot full-game video and it is shown on the Web site.
"We're also very big into mobile technology because that's where the teens are right now," Santorine says. "Fans are able to get HighSchoolSports.net on their mobile devices, like their iPhone or Blackberry. Not only can they get scores, they can also get photos and video."