BLEACHER REPORTData, Innovation and a growing
sports media property
Rory Brown
March 2014
Digital Media Strategies
Where did B/R come from?
In 2007, Bleacher Report set out to make fans feel more invested in their teams by…
• Providing access to great stories
• Covering the long tail of teams that major sites historically neglected
• Tailoring voice and style to how younger fans want to consume sports content (social, snackable)
• Honing in on real-time coverage of teams, leagues and events
Founding principles
Built to fill a gap in the market
Siz
e o
f fa
n b
ase
Sports teams and topics
Bleacher Report
• Covered many more teams and topics
• Appealed to a wider variety of sports fan
across the web
• Sought to be a one-stop shop for sports
content – bringing together the best
content from around the web into one
destination
ESPN.com and
other big sites
• Covered major teams in large markets
• Highlighted a few teams in lots of detail
• Appealed to large audiences but
neglected the long tail
• Content that did cover the long tail was
highly fragmented – hard for fans to
figure out which sites/articles were
worth reading
Why B/R got serious about
data and distribution
Iterative growth strategy
• Scale the audience
• Get in the door with advertisers
• Raise venture money
• Invest in content
• Iterate, iterate, iterate
Growth Strategy Content Strategy
• Use analytics and search data to
inform content creation process
• Identify gaps in market where fan
demand outweighs content
supply (e.g., NFL Draft, transfer
window, etc.)
The goals are still the same
Innovate over time
Grow
AudienceCreate
Loyalty
Generate
Engagement
So what are those
distribution channels?
Search
• Sports, and sports-related searches are cyclical
• Find out where supply doesn’t meet demand
• Embrace the mobile search experience
Newsletters
• Convert passing search
referrals into regular
newsletter users
• Leverage search data
to deliver content fans
want before they even
know they want it
• Original content plus
curated content
• Test, test, test
Web experience
• Build “retention” experience on website
• Increase frequency, and length of visits
• Continue to curate – make it easy on the user
Team Stream
• Original and curated
content in team-first
mobile app
• “Alerts” to highly engaged
audience tied to news and
analysis
• A true, real-time content
experience
• Data and distribution
focused on mobile
Social
• Engage with large fan base on
Facebook and Twitter
• Credibility is key. Brand is only as
good as your weakest post
• Curate and build content
specifically for sharing directly
from B/R
• Day-to-day traffic is more
volatile, but the audience
opportunity is massive
So does this strategy work for
building audience?
Results
60M monthly visits
Newsletters
Web Experience
Search
Team Stream
Social
3M active subscribers
1.3B monthly pageviews
100 monthly visits
Source: Google Analytics
50 monthly visits
And we’re just getting started…
So what’s next?
• Team Stream Now initiative
• Video built specifically for Team Stream and social channels
• Leverage data and editorial savvy to pick the right topics
• Engage audience with breaking news, analysis and modern graphics
Video
• Bleacher Report opened UK office July 2013
• Team Stream launched in UK app stores July 2013
• The early returns (Jan 2014 vs Jan 2013) are promising
UK Expansion
TOTAL VISITS
UNIQUES
PAGEVIEWS
UK Visits
UK Pageviews
UK Team Stream
UK Unique Visitors 3.5M (+56% YoY)
10.3M (+89% YoY)
50.8M (+64% YoY)
230K Downloads
Source: Google Analytics, Jan. 2014
