This morning I went to the site as I always do and went to look for the headlines.  Of late I have been disappointed that this section had been shrinking and I was only getting a small amount of them.  Here is what it looks like today:

So when the page loads I get absolutely zero headlines.  Nothing.  Zilch.  Nada.  In other words, I get the same amount of news headlines as the Calgary Flames get second round home games (there, I built the one jab in that I said I would in the CBC radio interview.)  I have to scroll down the page to get the information I want.

As loyal ESPN.com user, I’m pissed.  They have continually bastardized their site in an effort to make more room for ads and thus drive more ad sales.  I keep coming back because even because the content they have is second to none.  This last move, however, is a tough pill to swallow.

Now, to their defense, if you do scroll down you get 15 top headlines.  That is three times the amount you got before.  Also, it is possible that the Mac ad running their now is only temporary and they will go back to the old format.

For today’s consumer, nothing is more important than the experience.  Regardless of where it happens, they have to really enjoy how they get their information and entertainment because if they don’t there are hundreds, literally, of other places they can get it.   My buddy Fred is a junkie, as I am.  He is also a good example of what happens when you forget the customer and think only of ad revenue.

When he complained the other day that there were not enough headlines on the site, I agreed.  So this morning I told him there were more but he had to deal with more ads.  His response?  “ESPN sucks now.  I don’t go there nearly as often as I used too.”

Right said, Fred.  I know that isn’t good grammar but it gave me a chance to link out to “I’m Too Sexy”, and you know you are going to click through.

The point here is that I know ESPN wants to drive ad revenue and I understand and appreciate that.  But if they continue to make decisions based on ad revenue and not the customer, eventually it won’t matter.  People like Fred will stop going to the site all together and get their information from another site or an iPhone application.  If this happens, traffic goes down, CPM’s go down and they will need more ad units to drive the same amount of revenue.  More ad units means less content.  It’s a viscous circle.

It’s not every day that Chris Berman is talking about Chicago on ESPN.com.  They only roll his old, green sport-coated Nutri-System frame out there for the really big gigs.  It’s also not every day that you want to see Chris Berman talking.  He has a history of some profanity laced tirades., probably in the middle of the Nutri-System stretch.   But all that changes with the launch this week of ESPNChicago.com.

I was excited that Bristol chose Chicago as the launch city instead of NY or Boston.  But having worked a bit with ESPN, I know that any redesign work they do to the site is driven by one thing and one thing only – ad revenue.  The architecture of the site, the overall navigation and the placement of ad units are all built in a way to maximize those ad dollars, not, as they say, the “fan” experience.  Stub Hub seems to agree.

That being said, Scott the Chicago fan is excited.  I have all ESPN, all Chicago – all the time.  Today the Sox center fielder dislocated his shoulder and Bruce Levine was there to tell me all about it.  I have great stats, great pictures and commentary from the personalities I am used too.

Scott the digital marketer is extremely disappointed.  While there is a “blogs & community” section, the site is lacks any real social influence.  No group of fans is more passionate than local sports fans.  It’s the reason why local radio shows continue to do well.  It’s the reason a network like Yardbarker has the following it does.  Yet ESPN continues push and pull, rather than share.

So why would ESPN neglect this area for something as important as localization?  It seems to be another example of a broadcast driven company continuing to think like a broadcast driven company.

They spent time and real estate on the site integrating Chris Berman and other personalities as well as the overall SportsCenter theme, a digital strategy they have worked on for years.  Not a bad strategy, but not a complete one either.

What ESPN is missing is the opportunity to combine the strength of their brand(s) with kick-ass digital experiences.  This should be easy to do given the passion of sports fans. A toolbox of widgets, feeds and customizable dashboards at the hands of these fans would be damn powerful.   Sure, they had mobile early on, but that is table stakes (and they didn’t do it that well if you remember correctly).

Why not harness the power of the local sports fan to help drive some of their content or to enable a conversation? Good recap of how NPR took a shot at it and Mickey Mouse doesn’t own them.  This is what sports radio does and fans would much rather be interactive on the web than in their car, even if it does mean looking at Chris “Burger” Berman and his good carbs instead of the bad ones.