The Mail and Guardian launched a new blog called Sports Leader on Wednesday, June 4 as part of the overall redesign of its online product.
Sports Leader was in response to its popular Though Leader attracting more political writing with other subjects not getting as much screen time, online editor Riaan Wolmarans said at a presentation at Wits University’s online journalism course on the morning of the launch.
“We are hoping that by creating these niche offshoots of Though Leader they will get more attention,” he said.
Sports Leader has a green masthead with the font in keeping with the established Thought Leader look, and they managed to snag a nice big Nedbank ad.
Writers are invited submit their sports musings and those selected for publication are given a light sub.
Topics on the new site include golf, rugby, cricket, soccer, tennis and “other sport”.
The tag cloud offers other sport choices, and the site is accompanied by a sports news feed and the Mail and Guardian’s sports headlines.
MG online is planning a soft launch for its new site on June 17, with new features to include multimedia with greater interactivity and a business blog. They recently also launched Tech Leader which focuses on IT and technology.
Nice to have another media launch this week, after e.tv’s new 24/7 channel launch on Sunday.
