SB Nation and Sportico are both part of Penske Media Corporation’s PMX Global division.
SB Nation is launching an app to pull together content and chats from its network of close to 200 team- and league-focused sports communities.
The launch comes as artificial intelligence impacts the amount of web search traffic media publishers receive and algorithmic, video-heavy social media feeds alter how fans connect with each other on game days.
The app’s home page will feature a personalized list of posts from a user’s preferred sites, with another tab dedicated to game threads.
“People are exhausted by the toxicity of the conversation on social, but they’re also exhausted by feeling like AI worms its way into these conversations,” SB Nation’s head of network John Ness said. “What we supply to folks is like, I feel like I’m talking to real fans who care about what I care about, and it feels like once again I’m having an authentic conversation about the team that spends so much time in my brain overall.”
