EDITOR’S NOTE: In this first-person essay, David Kraft, (VP, News), reflects on the 10-year anniversary of the founding of the Universal News Group, which gathers and distributes news and provides editorial guidance for every ESPN platform, including television, digital, audio, social and ESPN App alerts.
Ten years ago, we ambitiously launched the Universal News Group. It grew from the idea that having separate linear and digital news desks didn’t make sense in a rapidly changing media world. Audiences expected to see the same news, with the same standards and context, no matter which ESPN platform they were watching/listening to/using online.
There were many people involved in creating the group. We spent more than two years on the project, with leaders and colleagues from throughout the company all playing a role in shaping it. I’ve been honored to lead the team since its inception, a job I enjoy and take seriously alongside a group of talented editors who feel the same way.
(Kelly Anne Backus/ESPN Images)
No other major media company had shaped its news division this way before. Most still haven’t.
Ten years later, our audiences get news more effectively than ever. We serve every platform with versatile editors who interact directly and daily with reporters, editors, producers, shows, event production teams – all with one goal in mind: Provide accurate, timely, contextual information no matter where the audience consumes it. It’s a model for a modern newsroom.
The first story published 10 years ago was free agent pitcher Jordan Zimmerman talking with the Detroit Tigers (we were right…he signed there two days later). That afternoon, Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill called the New York Jets “classless” after an injury. Athletes talking smack hasn’t slowed down. Later that first day, we had much bigger news: Kobe Bryant announced his retirement ([news editor]Jimmy Ralabate published the story). Sadly, the story of Bryant’s death five years later remains the biggest trafficked story we’ve had in these 10 years, with more than 20 million online views.
I tried to calculate the exact number of stories we’ve worked on digitally, but I worried that the publishing system might crash. However, if we take an average day and multiply it out, we’ve handled in the neighborhood of 275,000 stories.
And an even more remarkable fact: There are 20 ESPN staffers who have been part of the UNG for that entire 10-year stretch. That commitment to the work is a testament to their dedication. Congratulations.
