All eyes are on SB Nation who will play host to a new gadget site powered by eight staffers hired away from Engadget over at AOL. Former Engadget editor, Joshua Topolsky, describes being attracted to SB Nation’s vision which is equal part passionate writing (no one ever reads an “objective” sports column) and sophisticated real-time technology.
Our platform is a modern media stack focused on empowering rapid publishing, effective distribution and quality community in equal parts. – SB Nation describing their Media platform
The way SB Nation has evolved from a focus on fan-specific blog communities (which only engage on the colloquial level) aggregated up to the national level so that fans get the right mix between news about their favorite teams up to news about their favorite sports, on up to news important to sports fans everywhere describes, in general, the problems national media sites are facing today as they try and find that perfect balance between local, national, and international news.
It sounds like SB Nation has something akin to a “media carburetor” that can be tuned to find the perfect mix between local and global to provide the explosive engagement needed to drive growth today.
Topolsky is betting that the same secret sauce that powers finding the perfect mix for sports fans may also work for Gadget News. If he’s right, perhaps this same formula can be applied to other verticals as well – fashion, celebrity news, music, gamer news, financial news, on down the line. Any vertical who’s community can generate a strong enough signal at the “local” level should be able to feed into the model.
Further Coverage
- SB Nation Wins Tech Publishing Fantasy Draft; Signs Engadget Team – Paid Content
- Raiding Engadget’s talent, Josh Topolsky forms new tech news site – MediaBeat
- No Longer Shackled by AOL – David Carr at The New York Times
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