USA TODAY Sports Re-Launches MMAjunkie

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Nov 14, 2013, 09:15 ET

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties today re-launched its popular mixed martial arts site MMAjunkie (www.mmajunkie.com) to provide a more device adaptive experience for users that optimizes viewing of content and video across all platforms, especially mobile, which currently accounts for more than half of the site's audience.

Originally launched in November 2006 and acquired by the USA TODAY Sports Media Group in December 2011, MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie on Twitter), a four-time Media Outlet of the Year award winner at the World MMA Awards, has grown its audience by more than 40% over the past year. The site is one of the only media outlets that staffs and covers every UFC fight around the world, with a focus on providing unbiased MMA coverage to its young, predominantly male and highly engaged social media audience, with strong social referrals coming to the site via MMAjunkie's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

The new design will focus on supporting the site's explosive mobile growth, which has increased by more than 80% over the past year, and providing a dynamic fight night viewing experience that includes stats and original on-site photo and video through MMAjunkie's real-time play-by-play and live results pages.

"MMAjunkie has set the standard for the most complete coverage of MMA anywhere in the sport," said Dave Morgan, president of USA TODAY Sports Media Group. "This re-launch enables us to serve one of the most passionate, digital-first fan bases in all of sports with the same great content they've come to expect now optimized specifically for consumption and engagement on smartphones and tablets, which is how they prefer to consume our information."

MMAjunkie is the most recent property within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties to be re-built on its new lightweight digital publishing platform, following the launch of For The Win in April and the re-launch of leading sports-meets-pop-culture site The Big Lead in August and HoopsHype in October. The new platform enables rapid deployment of faster, leaner and device-responsive sites to support sports fans' consumption habits across mobile, tablet and desktop. The new platform also will be used to integrate and re-platform the portfolio of 10 independent websites that USA TODAY Sports Media Group has acquired since its inception in 2011, as well as to launch new mobile-friendly sites focused on trending sports topics that today's on-the-go sports fans crave.

The USA TODAY Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY Sports and Gannett's more than 100 well-known local media brands. It also includes the sports photography wire service USA TODAY Sports Images, leading high school sports destination USA TODAY High School Sports; For The Win, the first mainstream sports media property focused exclusively on "social news," and designed specifically to resonate on social networks and non-traditional media channels and platforms; Sports On Earth, a joint venture with MLB Advanced Media dedicated to great sports writing in all its forms; and the hundreds of sites within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties, such as HoopsHype.com and mixed martial arts site MMAjunkie.com, among others. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI).