In Chicago, Trib is King, But ESPN Moving In

Chicago is a city with a rich local online scene, and the Tribune Co. has a dominant stake in its home turf. But an outsider with a national presence is encroaching on its territory: sports giant ESPN.

Tribune, the Windy City’s publishing and broadcast fiefdom, is the king of Chicago media. It has roughly a half dozen media Web sites, including one for its flagship newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, and one for flagship TV station, WGN, that are either market leaders or have solid traction as far as online traffic.

But another national media giant, The Walt Disney Co., has also entered Chi Town looking for a piece of the online pie, with its highly successful ESPN Chicago, a localized Web site.

And the local online action is substantial. Chicago, which is the nation’s No. 3 market in terms of local online advertising spending -- as well as its third-largest TV market -- this year is expected to garner $590 million in local online advertising, a 20% increase from last year’s $492.3 million, according to research and consulting firm Borrell Associates.

Chicago trailed only New York City (with $861.6 million) and Los Angeles (with $662 million) in online ad dollars. Philadelphia ($408.7 million) and Dallas ($376.4 million) followed, according to Borrell.

The market is expected to continue growing. Local online advertising is forecasted to increase 80.8%, to $890.2 million, from 2010 to 2015, according to Borrell.

In two short years, ESPN’s local site established itself as a imposing competitor in the market.

“Based on ComScore, we’re the No. 1 digital sports site in the market,” said John Pastor, senior vice president and general manager of ESPNLocal.com. “We have got a brand name that people trust.”

But the Tribune’s Web site is formidable, with 28.4% of adults in the market logging onto it each month, according to data collected last year from Media Audit.

It was followed by SunTimes.com, the site for the Chicago Sun-Times, which had 16.2% of Chicago adults coming to it, according to Media Audit.

Chicagotribune.com attracted 2 million unique visitors in February, according to ComScore, while Suntimes.com drew 1.5 million.

The Tribune declined to comment for this story, and the Sun-Times couldn’t be reached for comment.

But ChicagoTribune.com and SunTimes.com are highly competitive on all fronts, including the digital one, according to Abby Sineni, Borrell’s customer relations and research manager. The Tribune was one of the “early starters” it terms of is Web site, she said.

“The other thing to note with them is they do a lot of social media,” Sineni said. “So they’re one of the top media companies on Facebook. So that’s that where they get a lot of their online [traffic], is actually through Facebook, and linking and making sure people are updated that way.”

ChicagoTribune.com officials are “also getting their feet wet with a little bit of mobile,” according to Sineni.

“So they’re doing their best to be on the cutting-edge of technology and to be among the first in their market to really dive into things and build up their brand that way,” she said.

The Sun-Times was slightly behind the Tribune is terms of digital, according to Sineni.

“They were probably second to come on in interactive, and they took a lot of what the Tribune did and made it their own,” she said.

“They’re also on social [media] ... They do quite a bit of video, which is going to be huge. Chicago Tribune does video, too. They’re both very competitive against each other because they know what the other person is doing, they keep tabs on each other.”

ESPNChicago.com falls third behind Chicagotribune.com and Suntimes.com on Media Audit’s measurement list, with 14.5% of Chicago adults logging onto it last year.

It is one of five localized sites that the sports colossus has rolled out in major U.S. markets. The sites in other DMAs are also performing well.

The Chicago site debuted just shy of two years ago, and in January it attracted its most traffic ever: 3.7 million unique visitors and 10.9 million page views. The site seems to have struck a cord with Windy City sports fans.

“We’re tapping into their passion in a way we may not be able to on the big [main ESPN] site,” Pastor said. “We not only cover Chicago, but we embed reporters, editors and producers.”

ESPNChicago.com not only has its own staff, it has access to the resources -- including national marquee talent -- of its Bristol, Conn.-based parent, according to Pastor.

ESPNChicago.com site even has a local version of “ESPN Sports Center,” called “Chicago Sports Center,” that it runs on the site, he said.

“They [ESPNChicago.com] are able to devote a good amount of resources to online,” Sineni said. “They’re fully staffed and they have a dedicated sales team … But ESPN is also a big name. People know it.”