News Digital Media and ESPN sign strategic alliance

News Digital Media and ESPN sign strategic alliance

News Digital Media and ESPN today announced a strategic alliance which sees News Digital Media becoming the exclusive Australian sales representative for three of ESPN’s specialist sports sites - ESPNCricinfo.com, ESPNSoccernet.com and ESPNScrum.com.

The addition of ESPN’s suite of sports sites means that the News Digital Media’s sales team will now represent Australia’s largest online sports stable, with over 40 million page impressions each month.

News Digital Media’s sales teams will now represent:

- ESPNCricinfo.com

- ESPNSoccernet.com

- ESPNScrum.com and

- the sports verticals of News Limited’s masthead websites - dailytelegraph.com.au, heraldsun.com.au, couriermail.com.au, perthnow.com.au, adelaidenow.com.au and theaustralian.com.au.

Ed Smith, chief commercial officer of News Digital Media said that the partnership offers advertisers not only huge reach, but premium, deep and highly engaging content to complement their brands throughout the sporting calendar.

“News Digital Media is excited to announce this partnership. ESPN is the leading, global sports brand, with unheralded reach and quality coverage across all of the major sports in the world. The addition of ESPN’s sites to our advertising portfolio means that News Digital Media is able to offer Australian marketers unrivalled reach and opportunities for digital sports marketing.”

Tom Gleeson, ESPN vice president, digital, said: “Australia is an important market for us. We are delighted to partner with News Digital Media’s award winning sales team. It is fitting that ESPN is partnering with Australia’s biggest and best sporting publisher as the next few years will see ESPN’s market leading sites bring unrivalled coverage to Australian sports fans of major global sporting events including the 2009 Ashes series, the ICC World Twenty20 and the Socceroos gunning for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.”

ESPNCricinfo.com is the world's leading cricket website and is one of the top five single-sport websites globally. In Australia it attracts up to 1.4 million unique users per month.

ESPNSoccernet.com is the world's leading English-language football website, attracting 400,000 Australian unique users each month.

ESPNScrum.com is a well respected rugby union website that has been providing unrivalled sports coverage for over 10 years and is starting to gain traction amongst Australian fans.

The partnership is effective from 1 January, 2009, when News Digital Media’s sales agreement with FoxSports ends.