WHO WE ARE -- "WE ARE" EAST COUNTY
SPORTS
OVERVIEW
/ HISTORY We are East County Sports.com. We were
created by the sports staffwriters from the 110-year old local newspaper, The
Daily Californian. After the newspaper folded on January 31, 2000, the sportswriters
recognized there was a distinct need for continuing coverage of high school and
community college sports in Metro-East area of San Diego County, so we started
this website, which is now in our Eighth Year of operation. (Please note: Since
that time, another party purchased the name "Californian" and
started a weekly newspaper -- this is NOT us).
| JUNE
27, 2006 UPDATE! | Website
nominated for national Knight Award East County Sports.com
BETHESDA,
Md. (6-27-06) - East County Sports.com, which has operated since February 2000
and quickly became the No. 1 source for news and information on high school and
community college athletics in the Metro-East portion of San Diego County, will
soon be competing for a national award. ECS has been placed in the mix for
the inaugural Knight Public Service Award, the newest of nine major award categories
conducted by the Online News Association as part of its Online Journalism Awards,
a comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in English-language
Web journalism. The Knight Award judges websites which, according to its
posted rules, "performs a public service through compelling coverage of a
vital community issue or event" and that "the impact of the coverage
on the community will be a major factor in the judging." The new award
is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Online Journalism
Awards are conducted in cooperation with the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Southern California. "As more Americans receive
their news and information online, it remains critical that online journalism
be held to the highest standards of the profession," said Michael Parks,
director of the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC. "We are delighted
that Knight Foundation continues to support outstanding journalism and look forward
to using this award to spotlight the best online journalism that serves its readers
and the public at large." The Online News Association is an organization
composed largely of professional online journalists. It has more than 800 professional
members, whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital
presentation, as well as academic members and others interested in the development
of online journalism. For further information, visit:www.journalists.org. The
submission for the Knight Award is another in a series of milestones for East
County Sports. Most recently, in 2005, one of our writers (np) was recognized
with an excellence in community service award by the San Diego County Fair Association. |
We offer MORE than all the other
East County news services combined:
-- MORE
stories, written by award-winning writers;
-- MORE
daily coverage and updates (compared to their weekly and bi-weekly coverage);
-- MORE photographs (by award-winning
photographers);
-- MORE features stories;
MORE accurate statistics, schedules and standings;
-- and much, much MORE, including our exclusive
All-East County™ team selections. Indeed, "we are" East
County Sports! The Grossmont Unified High School District even recognized
one of our founders for his more than 30 years in covering the athletics programs
of its 11 member schools with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Plus, the GUHSD is
a supporting partner in East County Sports.com’s continuing coverage of its
schools and sports activities, covering more than 350,000 people in our region
of the county.
COVERAGE
AREA Schools Covered -- We cover all 11 public high schools
in the GUHSD, including El Capitan, Grossmont, Santana, West Hills and El Cajon
Valley of the Grossmont North League; plus Valhalla, Granite Hills, Monte Vista,
Mount Miguel, Helix and Steele Canyon of the Grossmont South League. In addition,
we cover Christian High, a private high school which plays in the San Diego City
Conference, plus smaller Citrus Conference schools in Foothills Christian High
of El Cajon and River Valley Charter School in Lakeside. We also cover
-- Grossmont College and Cuyamaca College, community colleges of the 9-member
Pacific Coast Conference, and San Diego Christian College (formerly Christian
Heritage College) of the NAIA Golden State Athletic Conference. Future plans under
consideration include Patrick Henry High of the City Conference. We also have
covered other East County venues and events, like the Del Mar and Lakeside rodeos,
Gillespie Field Air Show and more.
|
VISITING COUNTRIES
(60)
|
American Samoa, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Croatia,
Dominican Republic, Egypt, England,
Finland, France, Germany, Ghana,
Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary,
India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lithuania,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, The Netherlands,
New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,
The Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan (Taipei), Thailand, Turkey,
Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (Dubai),
U.S. Virgin Islands and Yemen.
| These
are visitors since
we posted our website
redesign in October 2005. |
Coverage Area -- The website was
created to serve the student-athletes, families
and residents in all of our communities,
including El Cajon, Fletcher Hills, Lemon
Grove, Spring Valley, La Mesa, Jamul, Rancho
San Diego, Casa de Oro, Mount Helix, Granite
Hills, Alpine, Lakeside, Santee, Crest and
many, many others. In addition, since our
website re-design in October 2005, we have
welcomed readers from all 50 states, Washington,
D.C., all U.S. territories, and 60 foreign
countires.
ADVERTISERS'
BENEFITS To our advertisers, we offer an attractive audience
to our sponsors and advertisers, including:
More than 3,000 readers per day --
that’s upwards of 100,000 readers per
month! -- wider circulation than the three
local weekly newspapers combined! Plus,
these readers are high-volume, repeat traffic
by local customers interested in coverage
of local events -- and the local businesses
that support one of the fastest-growing
websites in the West! For the 2006-07 school
year, we genrrated 1,019,000 hits! In 2007-08,
it was well over 1.1 million hits! -- we're
still growing while newspaper circulation
continues to fall.
Our service is fully available and
utilized -- by the East County community,
as the website is presently averaging 3,600
hits per day during the school year (more
than 6,000 on many recent CIF playoff dates)
– That’s wider circulation than
the local weekly newspapers! -- Simply by
word-of-mouth promotion. With more than
ONE MILLION hits over the past two school-years
alone, East County Sports.com has now registered
more than 4.2 million hits in more than
eight seasons of service. These statistics
are verified by www.FastClick.com and
www.StatCounter.com
Cost
Effective -- Reach your customer effectively by target marketing at a fraction
of what it costs to advertise in print, on radio, or television. With East County
Sports, you enjoy peace of mind knowing that your advertising dollars are reaching
100% of consumers who demand our service -- all at a reasonable cost. Great
Demographics -- Our cliental are high-end consumers who own and utilize personal
computers in their homes, or computer-savvy students using computers at their
schools. Our hit rate between men and women is almost equal, and we reach all
age categories, with readers 48 states and 59 foreign countries, including five
countries in the Middle East -- our U.S. troops reading about their sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters. The Names You Know -- We are locally owned
and operated by people you know, and have cultivated long-time relationships with
our schools' coaches, administrators and athletes. Our core of charter staff writers
possess more than 100 years of combined experience covering East County -- our
track record is unmatched! Media Partners -- East County Sports has
gained media partners, including the San Diego Hall of Champions, ESPN Radio 800-AM
and the Online News Association, ensuring an expanding base of readers to the
website and other collateral activities, such as our annual East County All-Star
Basketball Game, serving as voting panel members to the SDHOC Breitbard Athletic
Association's All-County CIF selection committee, and our participation in a variety
of high school sports polls for the San Diego Sportswriters-Sportscasters Association.
Indeed, "we are" East County Sports! Did you or your
parents save newspaper clippings from your days as an outstanding high school
athlete? Do these articles bring back great memories of your achievements on the
playing field? Please join us in our mission to give our children something to
remember as remarkable athletes of the 21st Century. Please contact
our sales staff at: info@EastCountySports.com PUBLICATION
SCHEDULE East County Sports.com receives "hits"
(or visits to our website) throughout the week thanks to a publication schedule
that encourages our readers to return often. Here is a sample of a typical publication
schedule during the high school football season:
| Weekends | Game
Coverage, including stories and photos | | Mon/Tue
| Updated East County statistics; East County players of
the week | | Tue/Wed | New
Weekly SD County poll released | | Thurs/Fri | Previews
of this week's games from our "Fearless Forecaster" | | Anytime |
Breaking news and interest stories, including exclusives published on our website
long before any of the major metro newspapers or radio/television stations run
it (Yes, the PPR copies us!) | And that’s just prep football.
Don’t forget about our exclusive coverage of Grossmont College, the 2005
J.C. Grid-Wire National Champions of community college football, which
has now won 41 of 43 regular season games and a national-best eight playoff games
since the 2002 season. |
And Remember -- Unlike a newspaper, people are motivated
to visit our website because they want to read it. So they have to go to their
computer, turn it on, get online and go to our website -- and they do! So
even though our hit total may be equivalent to the listed circulation claims of
the local weekly newspapers, how many of their readers choose to read sports?
A half, a quarter or even much less? With East County
Sports.com, 100 percent of our readers want and desire the coverage we provide
year-round on high school and community college sports in our community, 100 percent
of the time -- and it’s the exact target audience you also want to reach,
too! |
EAST
COUNTY SPORTS.COM vs. The Local Newspapers
| The Differences
Between
EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM and The Local Newspapers |
| |
EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM |
Local Weekly Newspapers | | Readership |
East County Sports.com is accessed by people who go
out of there way to read about East County sports activities; including high school,
community college and other sporting events, teams and participants from our region. |
The newspapers have a passive following, with readers holding
interest in various sections of the paper. Thus they may not be interested in
sports at all, or only marginally. | | What
we cover | High school and community
college on a full-time basis -- that’s all we do! |
High school and other sports on a sporadic basis. |
| Media Association Memberships |
Breitbard Athletic Association,
San Diego Hall of Champions,
San Diego Sportswriters/casters Assn. | NO,
NO,
Rarely | Sponsorships
&
Community | Sponsor East County Senior
All-Star Games in basketball, and many other events --
Ask about our latest
opportunities! | None |
| All-East County™ | We’ve
been making selections for our exclusive All-East County™ teams for more
than 30 years. | None |
| Local Ownership | We
were founded and operated by people you know, award-winning writers who possess
more than 80 years of combined experience covering sports in the East County.
| The new weekly newspaper, which
replaced us, is now on its fourth ownership group since
The Daily Californian
folded in January 2000. | | News
& Updates | We are updated
almost daily, with breaking news as it’s happening. Plus, we have the space
to dedicate to sports, so we are not limited to a 12-inch story due to space;
we can write as needed. Additionally, we offer scores, standings
and statistics for many sports, including updates on newly established records
and milestones. | The paper
is updated on a weekly basis
but due to deadlines, may be behind by as much
as 7-12 days at a time -- not very timely. Plus, due to space
limitations, only a handful of sports are covered at any one time. |
COMPETITIVE
RATES
| ANNUAL
RATES (as of August 20, 2008) for 1x1
Space |
|
HOW WE ARRIVED AT THESE RATES |
|
FRONT PAGE -- $ 2,000/year
(12 consecutive calendar months).
INSIDE PAGE -- $ 800/school
year for all major sports (ads gets
rotated from football in fall, to
basketball-soccer in winter, to baseball-softball
in spring).
INSIDE PAGE -- $ 250/Single
school's Prep Football page, or community
colleges, or speciality pages, like
"Clips & Quips" or "Four-Year
Standouts."
OTHER: Contact a sales rep for Sponsorship
Opportunities, including Player
of the Week awards, All-Star Games,
the Scoreboard Ticker, and much more.
We charge half the amount than the local newspapers, yet your ad
is: A) viewed daily instead of weekly; B) your ad can be on the front page; and
C) you get the results the newspapers promise but rarely delivery. Plus,
we offer promotional opportunities, like East County Athletes of the Week, All-Star
Games and more. And your ad on East County Sports.com can be linked to
your own website or email address at no additional charge -- newspapers can't
do that. All Front Page ads will be pro-rated to Aug. 20, our renewal date
for the end and start of each school year. | |
METHODOLOGY No. 1 --
A) The typical 2x3 ad in
the local weekly newspapers is $150 per week. With multi-purchase, it could go
as low as $110 per week.
B) Take that $110 times 39 weeks of the school year
(yes, we publish during the summer, but it’s minimal at best), and you’d
spend $4,290.
WE CHARGE HALF THIS RATE! |
| |
METHODOLOGY No. 2 --
A) The typical ad in the
local school game-program is at least $100.
B) $100 at 14 East County high
schools = $1,400... times three seasons (fall-football, winter-basketball/soccer,
spring-baseball/softball) = $4,200.
WE CHARGE HALF THIS RATE! |
| Remember -- We are a local company
dealing with local businesses,
so we work with you. |
| YOU WANT: | OUR RESPONSE: |
| Monthly payments to assist with cash flow | YES |
| Your ad linked to your website | YES, for
FREE | | To avoid complicated contracts, lawyers, and
legalize | YES | | Assistance for
simple layout and design of your ad | YES, for FREE |
SIGN
UP TODAY! Please join us and support our
local student-athletes. Thank you!
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