Between the Reagan and Obama administrations, Joe Yanarella carved out a ham-and-egger journalism career with print publications like the Hudson Valley News in upstate New York and Wizard magazine. Then, in 2009, as the U.S. economy was trying to get out of reverse, he took over as editor in chief of Bleacher Report, a woebegone digital pub filled with aggregated sports content. If this sounds like a story of a baby boomer struggling in a world of digital natives, it is actually the complete opposite. Over the last six years, Yanarella reinvented himself and Bleacher Report, which today has ESPN and Sports Illustrated not only looking over their shoulders but in many cases trying to catch up with an editorial machine that's laser-focused on social and mobile. "We've gone from wanting to have 100 articles going up on the platform to a much different strategy," says Yanarella, Adweek's Digital Editor of the Year. (Bleacher Report is also Hottest Digital Sports Publication in our annual Hot List.) "Now we are focused on determining what our 10 to 15 best pieces of content are and finding the ways for them to best play on Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and mobile." Bleacher Report, which was acquired by Turner Sports in 2012 for a reported $200 million, has generated staggering stats under Yanarella's watch. Videos snagged 82 million views across all social platforms in September, a 560 percent jump over 2014. According to CrowdTangle, the site ranked No. 1 for... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'
[ AdWeek | 2015-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]