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Sporting News
Sporting News

Sporting News is a digital sports media owned by Perform Group, a global sports content and media company.

Sporting News, originally The Sporting News, was established in 1886 as a weekly U.S. magazine. It became the dominant American publication covering baseball, acquiring the nickname "The Bible of Baseball."[1] It is now a digital-only publication providing essential coverage of all major sports, and with editions in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan.

History

March 17, 1886: The Sporting News (TSN), founded in St. Louis [2] by Alfred H. Spink, a director of the St. Louis Browns baseball team, publishes its first edition. The weekly newspaper sells for 5 cents. Baseball, horse racing and professional wrestling received the most coverage in the first issue. Meanwhile, the sporting weeklies Clipper and Sporting Life were based in New York and Philadelphia. By World War I, TSN would be the only national baseball newspaper.

1901: The American League, another rival to baseball's National League, begins play. TSN was a vocal supporter of the new league and its founder, Ban Johnson. Both parties advocated cleaning up the sport, in particular ridding it of liquor sales, gambling and assaults on umpires.

1903: TSN editor Arthur Flanner helps draft the National Agreement, a document that brought a truce between the AL and NL and helped bring about the modern World Series.

1904: New York photographer Charles Conlon begins taking portraits of major league players as they passed through the city's three ballparks: the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field. His images, many of which were featured in TSN have become treasured symbols of baseball's past.

1936: TSN names its first major league Sporting News Player of the Year Award, Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants. It is the oldest and most prestigious award given to the single player in MLB who had the most outstanding season. To this day, it remains voted on by MLB players.

1942: After decades of being intertwined with baseball, in-season football coverage is added.

1946: TSN expands its football coverage with an eight-page tabloid publication titled The Quarterback. The tab is later renamed the All-Sports News as coverage of other sports is added, including professional and college basketball and hockey.

1962: J.G. Taylor Spink dies. His son C.C. Johnson Spink takes over the publication.

1967: TSN publishes its first full-color photo, a cover image of Orioles star Frank Robinson.

1977: The Spink family sells TSN to Times Mirror in 1977.[3]

1981: C.C. Johnson Spink sells TSN to Tribune Co. That year, the Baseball Hall of Fame inaugurates the annual J.G. Taylor Spink Award, given to a media member who has covered the sport with distinction.

1991: The Sporting News transitions to a glossy, full-color all-sports magazine.

1996: The Sporting News comes online, serving as a sports content provider for AOL. The following year, it launches sportingnews.com.

2000: Tribune Co. sells TSN to Vulcan Inc., headed by tech billionaire Paul Allen. The following year, the company acquired the One on One Sports radio network, renaming it Sporting News Radio.

2002: The Sporting News drops the The and becomes just Sporting News. Subsequent magazine covers reflect the change.

2006: Vulcan sells SN to Advance Media, which places the publication under the supervision of American City Business Journals.

2007: Sporting News begins its move from St. Louis, where it had been based since its founding, to ACBJ's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. The publication leaves St. Louis for good in 2008, when it also became a bi-weekly publication.

2012: After 126 years of printing ink on paper with weekly, biweekly or monthly frequency, SN publishes its final print edition and moves to digitally only publishing.[4]

2013: ACBJ enters into a joint venture with Perform Group. Perform, which also owns Goal.com, Opta Sports and other international sports data properties, buys a 65 percent stake in the company.

2015: Perform buys ACBJ's 35 percent stake and assumes 100 percent ownership of SN.

2015-17: SN expands into international markets, establishing editions in Australia, Canada and Japan.

In 1962, after J. G. Taylor Spink's death, Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) instituted the J. G. Taylor Spink Award as the highest award given to its members. Spink was also the first recipient.

Athlete of the Year

From 1968 to 2008, the magazine selected one or more individuals as Sportsman of the Year. On four occasions, the award was shared by two recipients. Twice, in 1993 and 2000, the award went to a pair of sportsmen within the same organization. In 1999, the honor was given to a whole team. No winner was chosen in 1987.

On December 18, 2007, the magazine announced New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as 2007 Sportsman of the Year, making Brady the first to repeat as a recipient of individual honors. Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals was also honored twice, but shared his second award with Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs.

In 2009, the award was replaced by two awards: "Pro Athlete of the Year" and "College Athlete of the Year".

Beginning in 2011, the awards were merged back into a singular selection, Athlete of the Year.

Sport-specific awards

SN sponsors its own annual Team, Player, Pitcher, Rookie, Reliever, Comeback Player, Manager, and Executive of the Year awards. Many fans once held the newspaper's baseball awards at equal or higher esteem than those of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.[9] Prior to 2005, the SN Comeback Player Award was generally recognized as the principal award of its type, as MLB did not give such an award until that year.

Also, between 1975 and 2005, Sporting News conducted an annual poll and named a national champion for Division I-A (now Division I FBS).

See also

  • Thomas G. Osenton, president and chief operating officer of Sporting News Publishing Company and publisher of The Sporting News weekly
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