Sporting News

Sporting News
Categories Sports
Frequency Weekly (1886–2008)
Fortnightly (2008–2011)
Monthly (2011–2012)
First issue 1886
Final issue 2012 (print)
Company Perform Group
Country United States
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina
Website www.sportingnews.com
ISSN 1041-2859

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 by 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.

J. G. Taylor Spink Award

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

Sportsman 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. These in turn were replaced by a singular Athlete of the Year award starting in 2011.

Pro Athlete of the Year

College Athlete of the Year

Athlete of the Year

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

Sport-specific awards

Major League Baseball

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.

Basketball

NFL

College football awards

See also

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

Footnotes

  1. Roy Blount Jr. (March 17, 1986). "The Bible of Baseball hits 100 next week, and when the". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  2. Christopher Zara (December 22, 2012). "In Memoriam: Magazines We Lost In 2012". International Business Times. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  3. "The Times Mirror Company History," Funding Universe. Accessed Nov. 20, 2017.
  4. "An update on Sporting News for 2013," Sporting News. Retrieved Dec. 11, 2012.
  5. Ken Bradley (Dec 17, 2009). "2009 Sporting News Pro Athlete of the Year: Mariano Rivera, Yankees closer". Sporting News. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  6. Steve Greenberg (Dec 15, 2010). "2010 SN Pro Athlete of the Year: Roy Halladay". Sporting News. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  7. Ken Bradley (Dec 17, 2009). "2009 Sporting News College Athlete of the Year: Colt McCoy, Texas QB". Sporting News. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  8. Steve Greenberg (Dec 15, 2010). "2010 SN College Athlete of the Year: Kyle Singler". Sporting News. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  9. Gillette, Gary; Palmer, Pete; Gammons, Peter (2008). The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia (Fifth ed.). Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 1807. ISBN 978-1-4027-6051-8.
  10. Clifton Brown (January 30, 2013). "Sporting News 2012 NFL awards: Robert Griffin III, Rookie of the Year - NFL". AOL. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  11. 1 2 From the 1950s through 1979, The Sporting News published All-Conference teams. In 1980 it began choosing an All-Pro team.
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