Media Monster

SportsNewser, Mediabistro’s Sports Blog, Is Closing Up Shop

According to two people with knowledge of the situation, SportsNewser, Mediabistro’s sports media site, will cease to exist after next Thursday. MB will continue to have sports-related posts, but those will be rolled into the TVNewser blog. There will no longer be a standalone sports site.

SportsNewser was launched last August, and it focused mainly on TV-related announcements and interviews with on-air talent.

The reason given for the shuttering, which one of our two sources characterized as “fishy,” was, they say, not related to traffic. Our sources say SportsNewser was, in fact, doing pretty good monthly numbers, and growing. Instead, the reason given to insiders for its closure was that the brand didn’t fit into Mediabistro’s overall lineup of blogs. This sounds weird to us, since just last year Alan Meckler, CEO of parent company WebMediaBrands, said, “SportsNewser is a natural extension of our blog media network.” Also, Mediabistro is a network of media blogs, and SportsNewser is a media site about sports.

As for who is staying at MB and who is moving on, that announcement will come next week. We wish SportsNewser’s staff the best of luck going forward.