Sporting News

Sporting News
Categories Sports
Frequency Weekly (1886–2008)
Bi-weekly (2008–2011)
Monthly (2011–2012)
First issue 1886
Final issue 2012 (print)
Company Sporting News Media
(Perform Group 65%, ACBJ 35%)
Country United States
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina
Website www.sportingnews.com
ISSN 1041-2859

Sporting News, originally The Sporting News (TSN), is an American sports website and former print magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball—so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball."[1] It is currently owned by Sporting News Media.

After 122 years as a weekly publication, the magazine switched to a biweekly publishing schedule in 2008, and to a monthly schedule in 2011. In December 2012, the magazine announced it would go digital-only starting in 2013.[2]

History

The Sporting News was founded in 1886[3] by Alfred H. Spink, a director of the St. Louis Browns and former writer for the Missouri Republican daily newspaper. Each number was 17 by 22 inches, eight pages, price five cents (Cooper 1996). The Browns were champions of the American Association, one of two major leagues in baseball, with a claim to the championship of the United States or the world based on the disputed 1885 World Series contest with regional rival Chicago, and the undisputed 1886 winner. 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. Al Spink had long turned it over to his brother, first hiring Charles as business manager, then selling his stock, and finally departing from writing and editorial work in 1899 (Cooper 1996). His son, J. G. Taylor Spink, took over in 1914 and gradually added coverage of other sports as well.

Throughout much of the 20th century TSN was decidedly non-glamorous, consisting of black-and-white newsprint with staid graphics. However, for most of its first century it was the only vehicle for serious sports fans to follow teams from around the nation. For example, each week it printed a box score and blurb for every baseball game played in the major leagues and numerous minor leagues. Similarly, every issue had a report on each MLB team, usually written by a local newspaper's beat writer for that team. Franklin Gritts served as TSN's art director from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Other TSN publications included the annual Baseball Register, a compilation of lifetime statistics of active major league players. Its subtitle from the 1940s through the mid-1960s was The Game's Four Hundred.

J. G. Taylor Spink died in 1962. The Spink family continued to own TSN until selling it to Times Mirror in the mid-1980s. Also around this time the company began publishing annual previews for professional and college football, professional and college basketball, baseball, and hockey.

With the advent of national sports media in the 1980s such as USA Today and ESPN, and of comprehensive web sites run by the major sports leagues in the 1990s, TSN lost its unique role. Consequently, it evolved into more of a conventional, glossy sports magazine similar to Sports Illustrated in both appearance and contents. Box scores disappeared from its pages in the late 1980s, but were still made available to subscribers in a separate publication for an undetermined period of time afterwards. The online SN Today revived the tradition of publishing boxscores in its virtual pages.

In 2000, TSN was purchased by Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. The following year, the company acquired the One on One Sports radio network, renaming it Sporting News Radio. The magazine's title was shortened to Sporting News in December 2002.

In September 2006, Advance Publications bought Sporting News and its online division and folded it into American City Business Journals. With the change in ownership, the company ceased most of its book publishing efforts. The Baseball Guide, a TSN annual in one form or another since the 1920s, was last published in 2006. The Baseball Register, an annual since the early 1940s, published its last edition in 2007. The Baseball Record Book was last published in 2007, and then only as a download. None of these guides were published in 2008. After 122 years as a weekly publication, it became a bi-weekly in 2008.

In 2011, Garry D. Howard was appointed as editor-in-chief of Sporting News magazine, Sporting News Today and its website, Sporting News Feed. Howard came to Sporting News from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he was sports editor. Howard also was president of the Associated Press Sports Editors. Also as part of its reorganization in 2011, Benson Taylor was named managing editor of SN magazine and Paul Kasko was named managing editor of SN Today and SN Feed. It also switched to weekly publication.

In late 2012, Sporting News ceased its print edition after 126 years.[3] However, its Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball yearbooks remained in publication.

In 2013, Perform Group combined its US businesses with Sporting News to form Sporting News Media, in which it took a 65% stake. ACBJ retained 35%.[4]

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

See also: Baseball 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.

Basketball

NFL

College football awards

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Roy Blount Jr. (March 17, 1986). "The Bible of Baseball hits 100 next week, and when the – 03.17.86 – SI Vault". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  2. ↑ Jeff Price, Garry D. Howard (December 11, 2012). "An update on Sporting News for 2013". Sporting News. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Christopher Zara (December 22, 2012). "In Memoriam: Magazines We Lost In 2012". International Business Times. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  4. ↑ Perform Group To Combine U.S. Sports Assets With Sporting News Brand
  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 instead began choosing an All-Pro team.

References

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