The presence of women in sports media has precipitously grown, and women’s sports as a whole have become part of the mainstream culture over the last several years. The launch of espnW in 2010 surely helped hasten that process, bringing a revamped approach in covering games themselves and empowering future women to render it sustainable. The brand operates with the goal of promulgating the stories of women while blending sports and culture.
On Thursday from Brooklyn, N.Y., it held its 13th espnW Summit. Women from sports media, advertising partners, ESPN company executives and aspiring professionals were on hand to gather insights from some of the best and brightest in the industry, and foster professional relationships.
Laura Gentile, EVP of Marketing at ESPN, had a significant role in launching espnW and was inspired to initiate a distinct brand dedicated to communicating the augmentation and assimilation of women in sports. At the time of its launch, women were estimated to accumulate for less than a quarter of ESPN’s total viewership, as the network focused much of its coverage on men in professional sports. Today, ESPN provides all viewers a wide array of coverage pertaining to both men’s and women’s sports, and Gentile has arguably been a key component of the mission’s effectuation.
“The momentum’s clear, and the deal-making is happening and the conversations are in-depth and specific,” Gentile said. “It’s growth on so many levels. Whether it’s women’s college basketball; women’s gymnastics; WNBA. There are so many things that are ascendant, and it was awesome to be in this space first, and now it’s awesome to be a part of a bigger team really having great conversations about where we go next.”
The annual event was hosted by ESPN’s Sarah Spain, and the inspiration she receives from other women in the industry is renewed each time she participates.
“I love being the host because not only do I get to kind of guide everyone through this awesome day of content, but I always have so many comments and opinions on all of the panels, even the ones I don’t host,” she said. “When I get back up on stage to go to something I’m hosting or just to throw it to break or something, I have the opportunity to offer a little insight or reflect on something that I heard that was meaningful to me.”
The momentum of women in sports media has rapidly progressed over the last decade, and there have been myriad professionals innovating in the space. Through constructing new opportunities to share opinions and express themselves, women are acting as entrepreneurs and establishing a new standard in which the industry’s progeny will be able to share. Now, perhaps more than ever before, women are taking ownership of their collective visions and commanding the manner in which they create and disseminate content.
“These women know how to build their own platforms and aren’t waiting for a media company or a legacy media company to tell their story,” said Jessica Robertson, co-founder and chief content officer of TOGETHXR. “They’re also building audiences that are much bigger than some of these media companies in the first place, so they get to dimensionalize themselves [and]… they are their own brands.”
—
ESPN’s First Take just completed its most-watched April. The show includes ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith with a rotation of panelists such as JJ Redick, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo and Marcus Spears. Show host Molly Qerim values her colleagues, but finds it especially fulfilling when the show gives women a chance to express themselves, including Kimberly A. Martin, Mina Kimes and Monica McNutt. She met additional ESPN personalities for the first time at the event, including Cristina Alexander and Blake Bolden, moderating a panel about the lives of women working at the network.
“I always wanted to just attend the event, let alone be a speaker,” Qerim said. “For it to finally come together and culminate, I’m just extremely grateful. It’s such an honor to be on the stage and in the room with so many incredible women both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.”
Qerim had to adjust to First Take’s format, centered around Smith debating various challengers, upon the departure of former commentator and debater Max Kellerman. She was unsure about how the new format would work, but knew that her role on the show would adjust as the only other daily cast member.
“This ‘Stephen A. vs. The World’ has worked,” Qerim said, “and I think it just brings a lot of energy and a lot of interest to the program in having so many different voices. I know for myself it opened up more space for me and my role was able to grow on the show as well.”
As one of ESPN’s most prominent hosts, Qerim seeks to engender support for women in sports media by being candid and supportive of her counterparts. She draws inspiration from her colleagues and others in her life, part of the reason she felt prompted to share her battle with stage 4 endometriosis. Qerim worked at the network earlier in her career, starting as an intern before covering football and basketball for CBS Sports and NFL Network. She ended up returning in 2015 to join Smith on First Take. Upon her return though, she noticed a marked shift in culture pertaining to the way in which women were viewed and how they interacted with one another.
“There’s such a shift with women in every industry in every capacity just empowering one another, encouraging one another, championing one another,” Qerim expressed. “….I’m just so grateful to see this trajectory and to see this shift and to see this change. There’s still a long way to go, but the momentum has been tremendous.”
ESPN SportsCenter host Kelsey Riggs admired the espnW Summit for many years, but she was never able to attend the event. This year, she made the trip to New York City to watch the panels and speak to the audience about her professional experience.
Riggs, who was a college soccer player at Charleston Southern University, got her start in sports media working in local news, and was afforded a chance to help launch the ACC Network in 2019.
“You have to make it your own, which means you have to be yourself,” she said. “I might not be what somebody else is with getting all the jokes off or having a certain personality. I want to always be authentic to myself, and so I just try to do that.”
—
Part of Qerim’s, McNutt’s and Riggs’s jobs with ESPN is to speak with athletes, many of whom consume the network’s programming from afar. Additionally, the athletes utilize their platforms to help promote the growth of women’s sports, both by speaking at functions akin to the espnW Summit and serving as role models for the next generation.
“I’m trying to kind of reach out to people and see what I could do to help the game,” said Detroit Pistons point guard Jaden Ivey. “Obviously, coaching is a big part. If I’m done playing, maybe I’ll be able to coach women and inspire little girls.”
Ivey just completed his rookie season with the Pistons. He is already embracing the city’s history in women’s sports by advocating for the return of the Detroit Shock, a WNBA team that moved to Tulsa in 2010 before ultimately settling in Dallas, Texas and being rebranded as the Dallas Wings.
“There’s so many talented players now going into the WNBA, so it’s really fun to see,” Ivey said. “….I want to see the Detroit Shock back. Me and my teammates have been talking about [if] they could do that, along with some other teams they used to have. It includes money and a lot of other factors that go into it, but hopefully we could see it change.”
The 2022 WNBA season was its most viewed campaign since 2006, averaging 412,000 over 49 live game broadcasts on ESPN. Furthermore, its postseason play – which ended with the Las Vegas Aces defeating the Connecticut Sun to win the league championship – averaged 456,000 viewers, 22% higher than viewership in the 2021 postseason.
The league recently signed a new media rights deal with Scripps Sports and is entering its 27th regular season set to tip off on Friday, May 19, and there are a plethora of storylines to follow amid expansion to a 40-game schedule. The New York Liberty made a series of transactions during the offseason, adding Jonquel Jones via trade and signing Courtney Vandersloot and Breanna Stewart in free agency. They will suit up alongside young phenom Sabrina Ionescu with the goal of securing the franchise’s first championship while seeking to expand interest in women’s sports both locally and abroad.
The Liberty were the focus of a panel at the summit. Jones, Stewart, and moderator LaChina Robinson discussed the impact a new “super-team era” could have on interest in the WNBA.
“We’re just barely scratching the surface of where we can be,” Stewart said. “I think that women’s sports and women’s basketball have so much untapped potential. It’s nice to see everyone else kind of realizing that because from the players’ perspective, we know that, and now everybody else sees it.”
—
Bleacher Report has become a prominent brand and an entity which has rapidly expanded, providing untapped, niche coverage pertaining to various professional sports leagues. The company’s women’s platform, HighlightHER, was founded by Ari Chambers. It was prompted partially because of her experience at a previous espnW Summit.
“I was just re-ignited with everybody’s energy from here in order to fulfill my mission and really build what I wanted to build,” Chambers said. “The espnW Summit is a family; a community that all wants the same thing – to push the game forward. To be able to represent on the stage of this community [and] there’s nothing like it.”
As a brand, ESPN is leading the industry in women’s sports programming, garnering a net share of 68% and a total of 33,180 hours of content produced. Moreover, ESPN+ amassed 19,713 hours of women’s college sports programming, which includes basketball, field hockey and a variety of other sports. Yet there is a lack of shoulder programming surrounding the coverage; therefore it can sometimes render games difficult to appeal for consumers to watch and become fully immersed in the content.
“I think there’s a lot of interesting conversations and things will come out of media rights deals that are up right now,” Jessica Robertson said. “I’m hoping to see investment where these games that are broadcast feel premium and special to that as the men’s games and events.”
“You see the percentages year-over-year continue to increase because the visibility is there; because the consistency is there with coverage,” Chambers added. “I don’t anticipate it slowing down any time soon. We’re coming into a generation that’s accustomed to women’s sports at an elite level and being broadcast. The next generation is confident in stepping into knowing that their ceiling doesn’t exist.”
ESPN has a variety of brands within its portfolio and shares its work across various social media platforms, following a year where it generated 7.5 billion engagements, a 34% annual increase. The majority of the audience its social media platforms serve is under 35 years old, yet its linear audience is over 50, wherefore it is essential to construct specialized content with which they can connect.
“The most important thing is that your followers on a particular platform know that you’re just not talking to them like you are talking with them,” said Kaitee Daley, vice president of social media at ESPN. “You are giving them content that they will engage with.”
The social media ecosystem has experienced turbulence over the last year. Algorithms of nearly every platform seem to change consistently, and users are looking for engaging, short-form content.
“Our team practices nimbleness all the time,” Daley said, “but to us, the most important thing is that we’ve built authentic communities off our platforms. If a platform changes it up and decides they’re going to do something, [we have to say], ‘Okay, how do we still keep the core DNA of what we know our community wants, but adjust some of our tactics to what the platform is elevating?’”
The mission of espnW is supported company-wide, evinced through the presence of those in other departments at the conference. Marsha Cooke, who works as the vice president and executive producer for ESPN Films and 30 for 30, felt a sense of pride watching women create their own opportunities and showcase progress.
“It really shows our commitment as a company to bridge the gap between what people perceive women’s sports to be and what the reality is of women in sports,” she said. “We do it all. We do it well. We should be recognized for it, and most importantly, it’s something that I think we need to find a level and equal playing field not only in what we broadcast and what we cover, but how we support [it].”
—
One method through which espnW connects with its audience is in producing original podcasts. ESPN soccer commentator, reporter and host Julie Foudy hosts Laughter Permitted. Since the show’s inception in 2019, Foudy and producer/co-host Lynn Olszowy have interviewed influential women in the world of sports, including WNBA coach Becky Hammon, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former tennis player and women’s rights advocate Billie Jean King.
Foudy was a midfielder and captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team. Over the course of her playing career, she won two World Cup titles (1991, 1999) and two Olympic gold medals (1996, 2004), giving her unparalleled insight and perspective into what it takes to achieve goals and be part of a team.
“Once people hear a story, their curiosity is piqued about an athlete because they’ve watched them on TV, but they don’t know enough about them,” Foudy said. “Then all of a sudden you’ve got that hook. I think we’re doing – obviously with all of the different platforms and forms of media – we’re doing a lot better job of telling stories.”
Foudy and Olszowy taped an episode of their podcast in front of a live audience at the espnW Summit and welcomed NASA astronaut Nicole A. Mann, who made history by becoming the first indigenous woman to travel to space. She was recently working out of the International Space Station as commander of the NASA SpaceX Crew-5 mission, spending just over five months away from earth. She had previously appeared as a guest on Laughter Permitted during that time.
“I remember being a young child growing up and it was difficult to find your mentors in life and your heroes in life because it just wasn’t readily available,” Mann said. “It’s just great to see everybody sharing their story. I think it helps to inspire the younger generation and really give them the opportunities to reach out so they have the tools to achieve their dreams.”
—
Ally Financial Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Brimmer joined Foudy on stage prior to the taping of the podcast and was joined by members of the company’s new initiative, “Team Ally.” Various athletes and creators shared the significance of being part of the team and helping expand the collective reach, awareness and support for women’s sports.
“With Ally, we’ve done such incredible things because the moment we met, we were like, ‘Tell me I can’t and I’ll show you I will,’” said retired NWSL player and Gotham FC creative advisor Ashlyn Harris while on stage. “The rest has been history and I love aligning myself with companies who get it, who want to create a change who aren’t checking a box.”
—
Women in sports media have made significant strides to coerce mainstream consumers to recognize that it is indicative of more than just a niche audience with esoteric knowledge. In the last year alone, viewership for The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament experienced an estimated 81% growth, and athletes both in college and playing professionally have earned more followers and engagement on social media platforms. Through all of the panels with athletes, media personalities and journalists, it is salient that a critical part of maintaining and hastening momentum is through togetherness.
“You’re never going to accomplish anything on your own, so it’s important to surround yourself with people who are going to be there to support you – whatever that may be – family, teammates or just people in your community,” Mann said. “You’ve got to set those dreams.”
“Keep fighting,” said Stewart. “Obviously, we’re the ones that know what we need the best and what we need the most. Sometimes it’s an uphill battle, but that doesn’t mean we stop.”
“At some point, my dream is that we’re not having an entire panel dedicated to, ‘What does the growth of women’s sports look like?,’ because it’s already so massively overgrown that it’s saturated the market,” Robertson added. “Know your value; know your worth; and follow in the paths of those that have trail-blazed ahead of you.”
Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
