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Big buzz this week about the redesign of the Knoxnews.com web site. Jack Lail (one of our presenters at the ICM workshop in March) provides some screenshots of the changes at his blog (take a look, as well as this roundup of reactions), and also mentioned the relaunch of a new (free) version of the Knoxville News’ GoVolsXtra web site devoted to Tennessee sports. #

While the Knoxnews relaunch will get a lot of focus (and it should, it’s a major overhaul of the site, including use of the Ellington/Django CMS), I’m more interested in the govolsxtra.com relaunch. It’s exactly the sort of niche web site more and more pro newspapers are investing time and energy into, and the sort of thing college media could adapt relatively easily. Indeed, the Florida Alligator is already aggregating sports content at alligatorsports.org, and Boise State will be doing so this fall with Broncosports.tv, according to Brad Arendt. If anyone has other examples of college media doing the niche sports site, drop a link in the comments. #

I asked Jack to provide some additional information about GoVolsXtra.com via e-mail, and he graciously answered my questions. His answers are below the fold. #

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I understand that it was originally a paid subscription site. How long has govolsxtra been online? if you can, could you explain the decision to go to a free service? #

We had operated govols.com/goladyvols.com since 1996, but three years ago we decided to move most of our Vol content into a pay site called GoVolsXtra.com. We expanded our coverage, hired an additional writer, focused on recruiting, did lots of audio, and posted stories as soon as they were read on the copy desk. #

The subscriber base of about 4,000 reached a point, however, where it just slow growing. We believe that we can generate more revenue via advertising by growing the audience. #

We were charging between 9 and 16 cents a day for the subscriptions depending on whether you were a print subscriber and whether you paid by the year or month. #

Are there other sites that compete in this area (from other pro newspapers or the UT campus media)? #

We have lots of competitors for UT coverage. Certainly, the university’s own site, UTSports.com, is one. The Tennessean is another and both Rivals and Scout.com have extensive Tennessee coverage. And, of course, there’s gargantuan, ESPN. We believe we have the best University of Tennessee coverage. We certainly have the most writers focused on the school. #

If you can, any idea what the traffic for that site is?

The traffic during the last 12 months was over 6.1 million. However, the free govols.com before there was a GoVolsxtra often times had well over 2 million page views a month during football season. #

Are there any new additions to govolsxtra that make the relaunch special?

We added forums, which we are calling a “fan zone” We have a number of enhancements planned, but they won’t be showing up until around football season. #

How long was the knoxnews/govolsxtra relaunch/redesign in the works? I imagine this took quite some time.

Just a couple months really. The corporate newspaper division interactive folks have already migrated several papers to the
Django/Ellington platform so they had the drill down for us. #

I’m hoping to write something for the weblog about this as an example of how people are focusing on sports-related sites and college media can do this too. #

Right after porn, I think you have sports as one of those subjects that users are really passionate about and can’t seem to get enough of. Coverage of University of Tennessee sports is considered a franchise for our printed paper and especially online. College sports doesn’t get much bigger than a Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium. You’ll find that same level of fanaticism in any number of college towns throughout the United States for football and basketball — and
maybe, in certain cases — a couple other sports. #

If you can’t build an audience around that, what can you build an audience around? #

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