There is an old adage which says: All good things must come to an end. And so it is with SportsInk.com.
Many of you fueled us with your kind words, encouragement and willingness to help. But in a tough economy, and competing in an even tougher industry, we can’t continue.
The support we received from our 46 high schools was gratifying; however, the same cannot be said for the business community. Not nearly enough decision makers were able to look at our terrific traffic numbers and see the translation to successful advertising.
We have sent thousands of e-mails and postcards, made thousands of unreturned phone calls to potential advertisers and had hundreds of meetings in our three-county footprint.
It’s been frustrating and, quite frankly, it is an industrywide issue. It is hard to believe that a hyperlocal site, with a strong following, that is yet to plateau, and has demonstrated steady growth is shutting down.
Over the last 12 months, the numbers say plenty: 466,000 visits, more than 240,000 unique visitors and nearly 1.5 million pageviews.
Yet the great majority of business leaders, even business leaders with children in high school sports, have made their intentions clear. They are not interested in including our site in their marketing budgets.
Oh, they expect to keep reading it, but they just don’t want to help pay for it.
To those owners, managers and leaders who have supported us over the last three years… thank you! We could not have lasted this long without you!
SportsInk.com originated in a spare bedroom office and was designed to fill a void in high school sports news. We launched in August of 2009 and almost immediately created a competitive environment that forced other media outlets to make high school sports a priority.
In that regard, we were a complete success.
To the administrators, coaches, parents, fans, and most of all the athletes, who “liked us,” “googled us,” became registered users and/or helped to drive our FAN-tastic traffic numbers, our sincerest thanks and best wishes
