ESPN to Rebrand Rise

Digital, events planned for company’s high school sports acquisitions.

By Dylan Stableford
05/15/2008

ESPN, which acquired School Sports Inc., a high school sports and lifestyle publisher, in December, has announced the rebranding of its flagship magazine, Rise.

ESPN Rise, with a circulation of 910,000, will be relaunched in September to grow the company’s 12- to 17-year-old demographic.

James Brown, a 13-year-veteran of ESPN, was named SVP of the ESPN Rise group, which includes the 300,000-circulation Girl and 100,000-circ Hardwood and Gridiron magazines—titles included in the SchoolSports deal.

ESPN plans to roll out a Web site, espnrise.com, in August, with a heavy social networking component and content from ESPN.com, Scouts Inc., Hoopgurlz.com, RISEmag.com and other sites.