SI Digital Launches Newly-Designed FanNation.com
23 April 2007
Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated Group has relaunched FanNation.com, its new social networking and sports news aggregation platform, it was announced by SI Digital President Jeff Price.
FanNation.com delivers up-to-the-minute information for sports fans, fantasy game players and bloggers from across the web through a user-friendly design that is built to enable a rich, personalized community experience.
The site's NewsScout feature, an engine (programmed, in part, by editorial recommendations) that searches the web and floats the best and most relevant stories to the top, enables sports fans to effortlessly track information about players & teams, create blogs, join fan groups and comment on the news. The redesigned site gives the SI Group and its portfolio of digital assets - most significantly SI.com and GOLF.com - a platform to deliver an unmatched user experience in the sports community space and further enhance engagement of its online audience.
Unique features on FanNation.com include:
Truth & Rumors: Leveraging the popularity of SI.com's daily collection of news and gossip, FanNation.com enables its users to personalize this information based on favorite teams, players and sports, as well as comment on those items and share it with individuals or groups.
The Throwdown: Two fans within the FanNation community square-off to debate a hot topic from the world of sports. Each person gets three chances to make his or her case and other FanNation users vote on who win that particular Throwdown debate.
Team Tracker: Users personalize their experience to ensure they're getting the most recent news and information on their teams from SI and across the web.
Player Tracker: Fantasy sports enthusiasts can customize their FanNation experience to get news, crucial statistics and injury reports for players on their rosters across all sports.
Hot Topics: The biggest news and names of the day are displayed in a unique graphical presentation through which the links to the most viewed stories & personalities grow and the lesser-viewed stories shrink.
NewsScout Map: Utilizing the NewsScout aggregation engine, the map shows users where the hottest news is breaking in markets across the U.S. Members of FanNation can personalize the map to ensure news on their teams is included.
Paul Fichtenbaum, Managing Editor of SI.com, and Ken Fuchs, VP/General Manager of FanNation.com, will direct day-to-day operations for the site which is part of the SI Digital Network, overseen by Price. The Sports Illustrated Group is led by SI President Mark Ford and SI Group Editor Terry McDonell.
FanNation is supported by technology developed by Sports Technologies Inc. (STI). As part of the pending acquisition of FanNation.com, Time Inc. also acquired a minority interest in a newly-formed subsidiary of STI which owns the remaining assets not sold to SI.
"FanNation.com delivers an unparalleled experience for millions of passionate sports fans who want all of the most relevant and timely news and information about their favorite players and teams from across the web," said Price. "This platform also lets our loyal readers and new fans engage more meaningfully in the debate and discussion that are such an important element of the Web 2.0 space."
"The unique combination of the site's innovative technology and architecture and the original, entertaining content users generate will provide fans with a multi-dimensional sports experience that they can't get anywhere else," Fichtenbaum said.
About SI
SI is a multimedia sports brand that takes the consumer into the heart and soul of sports. The SI franchise is anchored by Sports Illustrated, the most respected voice in sports journalism which reaches a weekly audience of nearly 21 million adults, and SI.com, the magazine's 24/7 sports news website that delivers more than 150 original stories to its users each week. The SI franchise also includes Sports Illustrated Kids (sikids.com), a monthly magazine targeted to kids age 8 and up; Golf Magazine and Golf.com; FanNation.com, a sports community and social networking site; Sioncampus.com, a website dedicated to college sports and the college sports lifestyle; SI Presents the magazine's specialty publishing division; as well as SI Books, SI Pictures, SI Productions, SI Digital and SI Events. Founded in 1954, SI is a division of Time Inc., the world's leading magazine publishing company and a subsidiary of Time Warner.
About Time Inc.
Time Inc., a Time Warner company, is one of the largest content companies in the world. With 130 magazines, it is the largest magazine publisher in the U.S. and U.K. Each month, one of out every two American adults reads a Time Inc. magazine, and one out of every 10 visits a company website (more than 19 million unique visitors). Time Inc.'s popular brands and successful franchises extend to online, television, cable VOD, satellite radio, mobile devices, events and branded products.
About Sports Technologies, Inc.
Sports Technologies, Inc., the creator of FanNation.com, was started in April 2006. STI's main focus is creating innovative products and features targeting fantasy sports, sports fans and other online communities. The company's vision is to develop creative products in a fast-moving environment with technologies that allow for rapid development. It recognizes sports communities as a category that can create compelling content and drive online businesses. Sports Technologies, Inc. is located in Canton, CT.
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