Type of site
|
Sports news |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Vox Media |
Founder(s) | Matt Watson |
Website | www |
Alexa rank | 769 (As of January 2015[update]) |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Optional (required for comments/posting) |
Launched | 31 March 2005 |
Current status | Active |
SB Nation (Sports Blog Nation) is a sports news website owned and operated by Vox Media (formerly SportsBlogs, Inc.). Established in 2005, the site comprises 320 blogs covering individual professional and college sports teams, and other sports-oriented topics. The site operates from Vox’s offices just off Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, as well as Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.
SB Nation currently has content-sharing partnerships with Yahoo! Sports, CBS Sports, USA Today, Comcast and the National Hockey League (NHL).
The concept of SB Nation was rooted in Athletics Nation, a blog focused on the Oakland Athletics, which was founded in 2003 by Tyler Bleszinski. Bleszinski noted that at the time, blogs focused on sports were a new concept limited to "mostly baseball sites on Typepad and Blogger", and that he was displeased over how the Athletics were being covered by these sites. In the spirit of Athletics general manager Billy Beane, he decided to build his own blog with an aggressive focus on the team. Athletics Nation soon became the second-largest site on the advertising network Blogads behind the political blog Daily Kos. Its author, Markos Moulitsas, was also a friend of Bleszinksi; in 2005, Bleszinksi partnered with him to form SB Nation, which would serve as a network of sports blogs with a common platform enabling community participation. Athletics Nation began hiring additional part-time writers, while the SB Nation network would absorb and acquire other sports blogs focusing on major league and college teams.