Woven Digital 's UPROXX Expands Into Sports: Acquires Largest Independent Basketball News Site Dime Magazine
Taps Former SBNation Executive Producer Chris Mottram To Lead UPROXX Sports
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- UPROXX a unit of Woven Digital, the publisher of fast-growing pop culture news and entertainment sites which also includes BroBible, today announced that it has acquired basketball news site Dime Magazine, the top independent destination for NBA and college basketball news, videos, and stories about the culture of the game from sneakers to the moves of the biggest players in the League. Through the acquisition, Dime will become part of UPROXX Sports. Woven also announced the appointment of Chris Mottram as Managing Editor for UPROXX Sports.
The acquisition of Dime and Mottram's appointment will enable Woven to bolster its editorial and video programming capabilities for UPROXX Sports with a focus on college and professional football, college and professional basketball, along with professional wrestling, MMA and everything related to pop culture and sports.
"We believe that the sports realm is ripe for the type of storytelling at which UPROXX excels. Acquiring Dime and bringing Chris on board will enable us to go beyond the typical sports post and dive deeper into the culture of sports," said Scott Grimes, co-founder and CEO of Woven. "Sports is already one of the most popular topics on UPROXX, but we think the social and shareable appetite for our types of sports stories is massive."
As the largest independent basketball news site, Dime is a celebration of the game of basketball and its culture. From playground leagues nurturing the next up-and-comer, to interviews with the largest NBA super-stars, Dime provides its audience with a behind-the-scenes look into a basketball player's life both on and off the court.
"Dime has earned the trust of ballplayers and has cemented its place in the culture of the game. I still remember the honor of being on my first Dime cover, and now I'm excited to be a part of Dime joining forces with Woven and UPROXX to reach an even larger audience," said Baron Davis.
In his new role as Managing Editor for UPROXX Sports, Chris Mottram will lead UPROXX's sports coverage and original programming. Chris comes to UPROXX from Vox Media, where he started as Senior Editor of SBNation.com, and then served as Executive Producer, creating and developing SB Nation's award-winning longform program. During his tenure, he helped build SBNation.com into a top 50 U.S. web property by serving as the site's first managing editor, and later edited more than 200 longform pieces of original, in-depth sports journalism. These features have received numerous citations from Nieman Foundation, Longform.org, Byliner.com, USA Today, SI, Longreads.com, among others, and won two of the American Society of Journalists and Authors 2014 writing awards.
"I'm thrilled to join UPROXX, where I hope to continue to build upon the extremely strong foundation the company has already established. There's a huge opportunity to expand UPROXX Sports' reach and readership, something I'm proud to have helped accomplish during my five years at SB Nation and look forward to doing again with UPROXX."
UPROXX is the largest entertainment news site geared toward millennials. UPROXX tracks the best of pop culture by tapping into the film, TV, music and sports zeitgeist on the internet. It is also a top destination for celebrities and content creators to engage in live community Q&A discussions to share their latest projects, films and TV shows with the UPROXX community. UPROXX reaches more than 27 million users per month.
This month, Woven debuted the company's first original series "Luminaries" on UPROXX. Luminaries offers a back-stage pass into the work of cutting-edge science featuring today's young and brilliant inventors to see how they have combined imagination with initiative, yielding unprecedented results. Luminaries has received 4 million views in just a week.
Woven Digital reaches nearly 5 million visitors daily and 90 million users monthly with nearly 60% of its viewership coming via mobile devices. Woven's leading online brands have become home to millennials thirsty for pop culture news, by focusing on their core passions and interests.
Last month, Woven raised $18 million in Series A financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from Advancit Capital, The San Francisco 49ers, United Talent Agency, senior partners from leading entertainment law firm Ziffren Brittenhanm LLP, MySpace and SGN co-founder Chris DeWolfe, Buddy Media co-founder Mike Lazerow, and former NBA players Baron Davis and Jermaine O'Neal. The capital will be used to bolster Woven's ad sales team, increase editorial content production, accelerate development of its technology, and expand Woven Studios, the company's original video production arm.
About Woven
Woven Digital is a millennial focused digital media company, producing and distributing relevant pop culture content to nearly 5 million users per day. As home to some of the most influential digital brands for young Americans, Woven reaches 90 million users per month providing them with shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video. UPROXX is one of the largest millennial focused news and entertainment sites on the web, while BroBible is the largest male focused college lifestyle destination. Founded in 2010 by Scott Grimes and Michael Laur, Woven is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices and production facilities in New York and Chicago. For more information about Woven, visit www.Woven.com. For media inquiries, contact [email protected]
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Tracy Akselrud
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SOURCE Woven Digital
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