''USA Today Sports'' is an American

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

s website owned by the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...

. It is a vertical of Gannett's flagship newspaper

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

. It is the publisher of ''USA Today Sports Weekly'', an American

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio, or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories in greater depth than newspapers or new ...

published weekly. The website and magazine largely feature coverage of baseball news from

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB),

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

and the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) from spring to early fall, as well as

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coverage from the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) during the fall and winter months. The magazine also features statistics for each covered league and interviews with players and staff members. Sharing production facilities with its parent publication at Gannett's corporate headquarters in McLean,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, ''Sports Weekly'' is printed on

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has ...

and distributed throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The magazine is regularly published on Wednesdays, though special editions that preview major events (such as the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

) or cover

fantasy sports A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete ba ...

are released several times per year, typically on newsprint of better quality than that used in the weekly editions.

Magazine history

The magazine was first published by Gannett as ''USA Today Baseball Weekly'', formatted as a tabloid-sized publication focusing exclusively on baseball coverage that launched on April 5, 1991, in concert with the first week of regular season play for that year's Major League Baseball season. For its first ten years of publication, it was released on a weekly basis during the baseball season and bi-weekly during the off-season. The publication was renamed ''USA Today Sports Weekly'' on September 4, 2002, preceding the official start of the

2002 NFL season The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The league went back to an even number of teams with the addition of the Houston Texans; the league has remained static with 32 teams since. The clubs were ...

, when it began to incorporate stories and statistics about the NFL. The editorial operations of ''Sports Weekly'' originally operated autonomously from those managed by the sports department of ''USA Today'', before being integrated with its parent newspaper's sports unit in late 2005. ''Sports Weekly'' added coverage and interviews from the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

circuit beginning with the February 15, 2006 issue. However this lasted only for the

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

organization's 2006 racing season, with Gannett announcing it was dropping weekly coverage of NASCAR from ''Sports Weekly'' after one season after the November 22, 2006 issue of the publication; although it would continue to issue three special editions dedicated to NASCAR on an annual basis. For the 2007 professional and collegiate baseball season, ''USA Today Sports Weekly'' announced that it would incorporate more comprehensive baseball coverage, along with the return of college baseball features; beginning with the August 8 issue that year, the magazine also added weekly coverage of the NCAA college football season.

For The Win

USA Today Sports launched For The Win (FTW), a platform hosting user-generated viral sports content blending original and aggregated material with eye-catching headlines in 2013. Jamie Mottram was its founding editor. The site was inspired by

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

and

Upworthy Upworthy is a media brand that focuses on positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of '' The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-found ...

. It produces shareable, mobile-friendly posts about trending sports topics which led to rapid growth in unique visitors and social media engagement with a heavy focus on sponsored content.

In popular culture

* The first episode of '' Eastbound & Down'' included a fictional cover of ''Sports Weekly'' featuring the main character. * In a 2006 episode of ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...

'', the main character

Peter Griffin Peter Löwenbräu Griffin Sr. ( né Justin Peter Griffin) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''Family Guy''. He is voiced by the series' creator, Seth MacFarlane, and first appeared on television, a ...

is seen reading ''Sports Weekly'' on a plane traveling to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. * In the 2001 baseball comedy film '' Summer Catch'', one scene features an announcer's booth at a Cape Cod League stadium accidentally being lit on fire when a cigarette ash falls on a pile of fictional ''Baseball Weekly'' issues. * In the 2001 comedy film ''

Shallow Hal ''Shallow Hal'' is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, Farrelly Brothers. The film stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black, with Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, and Susan Ward in supporting roles. Filming took pla ...

'', the character Mauricio (

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor and comedian. Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Golden Globe ...

) is shown reading a copy of ''Baseball Weekly''. * A photo of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

appeared in an issue of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' in which he was reading ''Baseball Weekly'' in a

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

store.

References

{{Gannett Sports magazines published in the United States Weekly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1991 NASCAR magazines Gannett publications USA Today 1991 establishments in the United States Magazines published in Virginia