Brian Grey Blog

Every 6 months or so a press release or story comes out that ESPN.com is redesigning their site, all in an effort to simplify user interface and improve user experience.  The latest push — according to Silicon Alley Insider is driven by a desire to boost traffic — Comscore has ESPN down year-over-year in uniques.

First off, when was the last time you heard a big publisher (heck, any publisher) really place credence in the Comscore numbers?  My guess is that like most of the bigger guys, they are still seeing YOY growth in ad impressions and specifically “premium” ad impressions.

But I digress.  Let’s be real clear, a redesign isn’t the magic elixir for radically boosting traffic.  The sports category is one of the most mature and crowded verticals online and there is a basic formula that works for the big media site:  basic news & analysis, scores and photos.   Those three content categories account for typically > 80% of a sports site’s impressions (not counting fantasy page consumption which for some sites rolls up to a sizeable chunk of page views).  The only way a redesign moves the needle in traffic is if:

1) the new experience makes it much easier for users to get from page one to the stuff that they are really interested in and looking for in the first place, and therefore they stick around longer, or

2) the new look also comes with a new product offering or robust feature set that gives users a reason to dig deeper in to the site

Beyond the maturing of the category, the other dynamic is the emergence of other outlets for sports content — blogs or niche sports sites — continue to lure audiences away from the core branded offerings from big media guys.  The social networking rise hasn’t made a huge impact, but when lumped in with niche site growth probably contributes to pulling some audience away as well.

Monetization is still heavily consolidated at the big guys, but consumption is spreading out and there may be an opportunity for a few of these smaller guys (Citizen Sports, Bleacher Report, YardBarker, FanIQ, etc.) to aggregate a different sports consumption experience that the big guys will eventually find is more valuable to own outright than to simply bolt on as a traffic roll up.

Now, back to ESPN’s traffic issues.  One of the mysteries has always been the desire to keep as much of their premium voice and content behind a pay wall within “Insider”.  Let it free – let it be shared, sent around by users and used to really spark discussion amongst the community under the ESPN brand across all users, not just a few hundred thousand willing to pay for it.

On the redesign front, de-cluttering is always a good thing.  I’ve always been a believer that fewer, highly targeted and compelling choices at the front door is what gets users making their way in to your property and spending real time with your content experience.  I don’t think auto play videos, and cramming as much stuff “on to the shelf” is the way to achieve this goal.

Of course, the bigger challenge will be explaining to the corners of ESPN Inc. who get cut from the homepage, why they are no longer on the homepage.  I have always suspected that appeasing all the internal constituents has tended to pull sites like ESPN.com back to jamming as many pixels above the fold as they can fit.  Sound familiar?

Wow…so much to talk about.

Auto Industry Bailout

First, let’s ask why are we contemplating a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry? Well, not really a bailout – that would imply that the industry would get back on it’s feet. Does anyone really ever see GM or Ford being competitive in the global auto industry? i don’t see it. So why don’t we think of ways to spend that $25 billion more effectively. How about:

1. Education and training for U.S. auto workers so they can transition in to a career where the U.S. can compete?

2. Small business loans that help help small and early stage companies grow and hire (see point #1 above)

3. Research tied to commercial products and services that address global warming

Take a read of David Yermack’s weekend piece in the WSJ about how much capital the U.S. auto industry has destroyed over the last 30 years. Add a number 4 to the list above: just give a check to each laid off auto worker that would add up to $25 billion. This would likely have a more positive impact on the U.S. economy!

ESPN Wins BCS Rights

With 2 years remaining on Fox’s BCS deal, ESPN has stepped in to outbid the broadcast network for the rights to the BCS Championship and related major bowls (Orange, Sugar and Fiesta – Disney already has rights to the Rose Bowl). This just solidifies ESPN as “the worldwide leader in sports”. The unique aspect of the BCS is fact that ESPN will control content rights for all the major bowl games across all platforms (TV, mobile, digital download, etc.). Unlike other “leagues”, the BCS doesn’t have aspirations to build its own digital destination so the media company (e.g. ESPN) gets to leverage their investment to the extreme.

Having spent time at Fox Sports, I am sad to see another event pulled out from under Fox Sports. One can only imagine what will happen in the next few years when rights to the NFL, MLB and NASCAR come up for renewal? Maybe now is the time for Fox Sports to figure out a way to partner with Turner — it may be the only combo that could challenge ESPN in the market.

Jerry (Finally) Leaves Yahoo!

You had to expect this sooner rather than later. Jerry Yang is finally resigning his CEO role at the company he founded 14 years ago. In retrospect, he seemed way to sanguine about things during his interview with John Battelle at the Web2.0 conference in San Francisco earlier this month. What’s most interesting now is to guess what happens to the company. Who can Yahoo! recruit at this point to come in as CEO — is there any realistic option at this point than to sell the company to Microsoft at a huge discount to the $33 per share shareholders could have received earlier this year?