Celebrating 30 years of ESPN.com: Insights from early pioneers David Schoenfield and David Kraft

EDITOR’s NOTE: ESPN.com commemorates its 30th anniversary this week with a quiz about its storytelling. Check your recall here.

This week marks 30 years since the launch of ESPN.com, so Front Row checked in with two ESPNers who have been around since the very early days of the site — senior writer David Schoenfield and David Kraft, Vice President, ESPN News — for some perspective on what has made ESPN.com the No. 1 source for sports news, analysis, scores and more.

What key decisions made in the early days of ESPN.com’s development shaped its long-term success?
Kraft: There were no established rules, so we had unbelievable freedom. We interacted with our audience via chats, polls, etc. We were early in into fantasy sports. We covered everything, and we were everywhere, from covering the World Series to chatting live with big-name athletes. We wanted to be respected as a news source and take advantage of the technology. And we did that from the start.

Schoenfield: Simply put, we embraced being sports nerds. Like newspapers at the time, we did game stories and columns, but with the added advantage of live box scores and updated stats. Rob Neyer was writing about baseball analytics in 1996, years before Moneyball and we spawned a generation of readers who would go on to work in MLB front offices. John Clayton and Chris Mortensen had extensive notes on the NFL, and the same was true with Peter Gammons for MLB. When “Page 2” launched, Bill Simmons wrote from the fan’s perspective.

At the heart, we’re still informing, interacting with and being a part of a sports fan’s life. That hasn’t changed in 30 years. – Vice President, ESPN News, David Kraft, on the evolution of ESPN.com

How has ESPN.com’s content strategy evolved over the years?
Schoenfield: Most of the early ESPN.com writers were reporters from TV or contributors who still worked full-time for newspapers. Eventually, we hired our own staff of writers. Hiring Jayson Stark in 2000 as a full-time baseball writer, for example, was an indication that the internet was in full bloom and ready to go after the best writers in the business. That coincided with a bigger emphasis on breaking news, original reporting and award-winning enterprise writing. And lots of lists. Readers always love a good list!

Kraft: As we’ve grown, we’ve become an even more vital go-to place for reporting and storytelling. Our audience expects us to be on top of the news and trends, provide best-in-class fantasy games, make finding video easy and have the fastest, most accurate live scores and statistics.

We’ve gone from trying to be part of the conversation as an internet startup to setting the conversation. It’s a huge responsibility that has meant changes throughout, including taking advantage of all that ESPN has to offer: video, audio, big-name talent, access, etc. But at the heart, we’re still informing, interacting with and being a part of a sports fan’s life. That hasn’t changed in 30 years.

What is a lesson learned from the launch of ESPN.com that is still relevant now as we head toward ESPN DTC later this year?
Kraft: Listen to your audience. We used to think we knew what our fans wanted. Focus groups were great, but it wasn’t scientific. Now, we know instantaneously. Sometimes, we still need to tell stories that aren’t comfortable, but they are what fans need to know. We’re mindful of that balance, but there’s no substitute for knowing your audience and meeting their needs. That’s why people keep coming back.

Schoenfield: Have fun! One of our first “viral” stories was a piece asking whatever happened to former Wyoming basketball star Fennis Dembo. We claimed nobody knew where he was. (It was a setup: We knew where he was, playing professionally in South America.) And did I mention lists?

What is your favorite ESPN.com piece since the site launched 30 years ago and why?
Schoenfield: An impossible question! [Senior writer] Wright Thompson’s profiles of Michael Jordan when he turned 50 in 2013 and “The Secret History of Tiger Woods” are legendary pieces of journalism. [Senior writer] Liz Merrill’s story on former Villanova basketball star-turned-nun Shelly Pennefather won many awards.

[Senior writer] Tim Keown wrote a moving piece on the sad farewell of the Oakland Athletics last September. [Enterprise and Olympics reporter] Bonnie D. Ford provided a masterclass through the years on her reporting on Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. I loved [writers] Dave Wilson and Sam Khan Jr.’s story on the death of the Southwest Conference, 25 years later. In asking some of our colleagues for their favorite, many cited Wayne Drehs’ story “Ray of Hope,” about the tragic death of Jason Ray, the student mascot at the University of North Carolina whose legacy lived on through his organ donations.

Kraft: There are so many. Too many. I think at one point, we calculated that we publish as many words as there are in the Bible every seven days. Heck, we may do more now. That’s a lot of really great work.

On a personal level, I covered Mark McGwire breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home run record in 1998 and we had a story ready for when he hit it. McGwire took a long time to get around the base, and we had the story up before he touched home plate.

That was a seminal moment for me – both as a fan and as a journalist. We were doing things in the journalism/technology space that nobody else could, which is something we’re still doing today.