ENC 4416 Assignment2

8/13/2019 ENC 4416 Assignment2

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Mark Roszel

How to Draw In More Niche Market Sports Fans for SBNation

Sbnation.com, a site for sports blogs, can be enhanced in its visual rhetoric and in its

organization of stories. Its main page shows five major stories regardless of the sport,which can sometimes lead to multiple stories related to the same sport. If there were

seven squares showing the biggest stor and si! different sports in the other squares,

viewers would immediatel identif their favorite sport"s news just b looking for the pictures, instead of having to search for a sport not immediatel on the main page. #his

allows seven different sports to be covered versus five stories with the possibilit of

multiple sports doubling in the news feed.

Current Functionality: The Digital Worl of SBNation

Sbnation.com discusses multiple sports and team news as it breaks to the people. In order

to assess the power of the site it is important to take a look at it as a digital environmentand wh it is needed. It is also important to look at the visuals and what makes it visuall

appealing to the users. #he people who populate the site and contribute discussions onthe topics give the news in each stor value, but S$%ation controls the mainstream of

information the viewer sees.

Sbnation.com"s communit of sports blogs covers all sports. It is a ke e!ample of

&culturomics', the application of massive scale data collection and analsis to the stud

of human culture. Sbnation.com compiles facts, stats and discussion of that data. Sports

talk is a need for most people and these blogs feed this need. (owever, like )S*% andlocal media, there are stories that aren"t given much attention on S$%ation.

+urrentl, the site puts a lot of emphasis on the three major sports %-, %$/ and M$.0epending on how big the news is versus those sports, %( gets the fourth most

coverage followed b college sports, either football or basketball. I would even observe

that sometimes college sports get more attention than %(. 1n a lower tier ofimportance are the solo sports like %/S+/R, golf, tennis and even 2-+ fighting. I

would also put the team sport of soccer, both national and Major eague Soccer in that

lower tier.

3isual breakdown

4st tier %- 5 %$/ 5 M$

6 %0 tier %( +1)7) S*1R#S

8R0 tier MS %/#I1%/ S1++)R

%/S+/R 71- #)%%IS

9#( #I)R 2-+



What SBNation Nees to !row to More "sers

I believe that S$%ation can be enhanced in its visual rhetoric and in its organization of

stories. #hese changes are about directing the attention in a new or different direction and

showing a new possible position that hasn"t been considered before that shifts values.

(ere is a recent screen grab of the mainstream on a slow sports da

:ou have the most major news which had just ended most recentl 2S Soccer, followed b big golf news, M$ news in two squares and %/S+/R in the fifth square.

(ere is a recent screen grab of the mainstream on a more preferred sports da

:ou have a major stor for M$ about fastballs, bumping 2S Soccer to the second

square, college basketball news, recap of M$ news and the same golf stor from theda before this one.



I know having been in stor meetings and pitching stories for news shows at the 1rlando

%$+ affiiliate that ou want to get the major stories at the front and on slower das it"sgood to get in specials like the M$ piece on fastballs, but I would argue that the 2S

Soccer stor is still the biggest news.

I believe the news mainstream needs to keep it to one stor for each sport as opposed to

having two M$ stories at once like on these two das. If ou take awa one of the

baseball stories and add a different sport, it will keep more viewers since the don"t haveto go searching for their sport of interest.

How to Bring In More #iewers

/s I"ve said, the main page currentl shows five major stories regardless of the sport,

which can sometimes lead to multiple stories related to the same sport on the front page.

If there were seven squares, showing the biggest stor in the largest square and si!

different sports in the other squares, it would make it more likel viewers will identiftheir favorite sport"s news just b looking for the pictures instead of having to search for

a sport not immediatel on the main page.

:ou need to shift our attention to the S$%ation audience that feels left out and alienated

b the mainstream niche fan bases like %/S+/R and soccer. %/S+/R and 2.S. soccerhave large fan bases that are left out in the media. ;hile the ma not be %-, %$/ or

M$ numbers, I would argue <as a big %( fan mself= that their fan bases are as high

as %( in /merica. %( is to %orthern %orth /merica and +anadians what %/S+/R

is to the South and 2.S. soccer is to people with strong roots in )urope and South/merica. iving in the 1rlando area with a budding 1rlando soccer team on its wa to

entering MS, I can sa there are a good >,???@ fans alone in 1rlando looking for a good

source for soccer information. Multipl that b the number of teams in other cities thateither have no major pro teams or one like 1rlando and ou have over >?,??? potential

viewers ou can add just from MS. #he 1rlando %$+ affiliate sports department pas

special attention to its soccer team because of this and if it"s good enough for a sportscast that can onl fit in 859 stories on an average night, it"s good enough for the front

page of S$%ation.

How $ %ayout Change Can Increase Traffic

Anowing the fickle nature of the /merican public, ou know how short the attention span

of an average person is when looking at something. If the average sports fan goes ontoS$%ation looking for %/S+/R, 2.S. Soccer or some other lower tier sport coverage,

the"ll go somewhere else. I know from searching for %/S+/R events information for

m internship, there isn"t great web coverage for this sport. :ou can essentiall becomethe source for %/S+/R fans with ease b making a minor attempt at covering the events

with importance. If ou dedicate a square to each sport and dedicate professional writing

to each piece of work like the professionalism found in the M$ fast ball stor, ou can

draw in over a possible 4??,???@ viewers with minimal ease and word of mouth amongst



their fan base. #his will obviousl lead to an increase in commercial banners on highl

trafficked pages increasing revenue to the site and the authors of the content.

&lan for $ttack

I plan to re5design the entire front page to increase traffic for viewers looking for lessmainstream sports. #he site can focus on more than five sports in the space allotted to the

five &major' stories. :ou want to give &superstar' attention to as man sports as

possible, so ou don"t alienate fans in niche fan bases. )ven though ou have the barabove the pictures listing each sports individual base, ou might not get viewers there if

ou turn them off at the beginning. 1bviousl, if there is nothing going on for the sport

that da, the fan base will not e!pect something immediatel present.

4. Aeep it prominent <most important news at the front=

6. Aeep it immediate <most recent news following the biggest news=

8. Aeep it engaging for the most possible viewers <show as man different sports in

each square, not repeating an=9. Aeep it visual appealing <adding two squares to the mainstream adding in two

more different sports=

#hat will allow B different sports to be given prominence in the minds of the fans. $elow

those pictures will be the sports not covered in the squares followed b past storiesidentified b sport and the time the were posted.

Step 4 /dd two squares to the five stor main news stream giving B stories to cover

Step 6 0evote a stor to seven different sports in the squares, increasing the number of

people appeased at first glance.

Step 8 ist past stories in descending order below it

Step 9 abel the stories b sport and time the were posted to keep the viewer aware ofhow old the stor is before the click on the link.

#his will keep more users engaged and active for longer on S$%ation.

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ENC 4416 Assignment2