ESPN Acquires Independent TrueHoop Basketball Blog

Posted on February 19, 2007

ESPN has acquired the TrueHoop basketball blog from Gekko productions, a company founded by husband-and-wife team Henry and Jessica Abbott. ESPN has also hired the blog's author and former owner Henry Abbott to continue writing the blog. Abbott writes about why he sold the blog and what changes will be made in this detailed explanation post.

For me personally, there will be some change. For the first time in nearly a decade, I'll have a regular paycheck, benefits someone else pays for, and paid vacation. And TrueHoop will, I would assume, reach a bigger audience than ever. It will soon be moving to ESPN.com (although you will always be able to reach it at this address, which will redirect).
I'm very excited that TrueHoop is just going to be better than ever, honestly. Not to sound all cornball about it. But I really buy that. The timing here is perfect: I'm joining a respected mainstream media site with a massive audience, working alongside some professionals I deeply respect, just at the moment in history that mainstream media sites are really starting to appreciate the power of the blog. My job description is essentially self-created and it's my dream job--which I know because I have already been trying it out for nearly two years.
If this doesn't turn out to be fun, then I'm doing something seriously wrong.

Abbott also admits that he needed some income out of TrueHoop: "To be honest, I wasn't looking to sell TrueHoop, and I liked owning it. But TrueHoop needed a new model (besides the zero income one) if it was going to pay my mortgage."

There hasn't been much of mainstream media companies buying up independent blogs yet -- mostly they have been trying to launch blogs of their own. But the pace of these types of acquisitions could quicken as media companies realize it is sometimes easier to simply acquire an already established blog than to try and create interest in a brand new one.