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'Fraught With Peril': ESPN's Relationship With Female Sports Fans

  • Poynter, Friday, December 23, 2011 1:16 PM

"After talking to people inside ESPN, it’s clear that the network’s relationship with women is complex and fraught with peril," writes Kelly McBride in this thoughtful analysis of ESPN and the female sports fan.

McBride says that the network's latest effort to serve this demo,  espnW, "mostly a website at this point," is "a low-risk dip of the toe by a media giant, when a bolder move could yield bigger results."

But she does credit ESPN "for much of the hard work it does behind the scenes to raise the profile of women in the sports world," and for investing "a lot of resources into researching the female audience, trying to figure out what female fans want and how to give it to them. The answer: It’s complicated."

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