ESPN taking over local big city sports one city at a time

I don't think that we'll be seeing ESPN: Albuquerque any time soon so Rick Wright and the rest of the folks at the Albuquerque Journal dont' have to worry. But those in bigger cities?

Be afraid, be very afraid.

ESPN launched ESPN Chicago in April. ESPN announced today that they will be launching ESPN Dallas, ESPN New York and ESPN Los Angeles -- all markets where there are not only multiple sports teams (Dallas has the Cowboys, the Mavericks, the Stars and the Texas Rangers) but also ESPN-owned radio stations.

So why should the local sports press be afraid?

Since its launch three months ago, ESPNChicago.com, which recently signed an exclusive content syndication deal with The Huffington Post Chicago, has emerged as the top sports site in Chicago. In June, the site had 600,000 unique visitors which logged 1.4 million total minutes of time, an increase of 57 percent and 112 percent since May, per comScore.

Not to mention the fact that ESPN has been hiring the best people to cover every sport, has consistently good opinion pieces, has the most content and the ability to report on each and every sport out there

Dan Shulman, a former writer for ESPN's Page 2, took a look at the trouble the LA Times sports section will be in:

Here's a basic case study: Does the Times think it has a lock on the Lakers? ESPNLA.com has (a) full-time TV reporters based in LA, (b) JA Adande, (c) a top Lakers blog (Forum Blue and Gold) as part of ESPN.com's TrueHoop Network, (d) a local radio affiliate and (e) the power of ESPN. Oh, and Bill Simmons is based in LA. Good night, game over.

As quickly as a good nugget can be reported by someone like the Times, a quick-acting (and inexpensive) ESPNLA intern (or low-paid editor) can have it on the ESPNLA site. It's called aggregation, and you can already find it daily on ESPN.com's Rumor Central pages. That's the craziest part: The economics of ESPN's local strategy are jaw-droppingly cheap, especially relative to local newspapers' costs.

ESPN has quickly become the go-to place for all things sports in the United States. And by branding themselves locally in these big cities, they are directly competing with the newspapers that have never had to deal this sort of competition before -- and they can do it cheaper.

The question is that if newspaper sports departments get winnowed down, who will be the beat reporters for each sport? Will ESPN Chicago, Dallas, New York and Los Angeles all eventually be forced to hire beat reporters?

But it seems clear that ESPN (and to a smaller degree, AOL's Fanhouse) will soon be in all the major cities with major sports teams. I'd bet on an ESPN Boston coming within the next year.