• The Boston Globe, Sunday, September 27, 2009 10:58 PM

The Kraft Sports Group, which owns the New England Patriots, is selling local advertising for the new ESPNBoston.com. ESPN has launched several new websites in local markets and generally uses its local radio sales force to sell regional web ads. But ESPN does not have a local sales group in Boston, so it teamed up with Kraft Sports.

Kraft Sports Group already has agreements with sports radio WEEI and television station WBZ to help sell advertising inventory for its Patriots programming. But some media analysts say the new partnership could create a conflict of interest between the Patriots and ESPN, which televises some Sunday afternoon football games.

ESPN spokesman Paul Melvin responds that there his company is not worried about a potential conflict of interest and "there is a very definitive wall between editorial and business."

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