UK: Daily Mirror confirms launch of stand-alone football site

Posted by Christie Silk on July 3, 2009 at 1:45 PM

The British tabloid, the Daily Mirror has confirmed that it will launch its own stand-alone football website. Mirrorfootball.com will be up and running for the start of the next football season in August.

Fans of the beautiful game can expect to enjoy a wealth of information and entertainment offered by the site. As described by the Guardian when the news of the site broke last month, it looks set to offer a predominately visual, up-to date experience of football scene. Video and audio applications will convey live match reports and press conference broadcasts. A new 'Football Spy" application will present a daily football agenda programme, match previews and reports and transfer talks.

Moreover, the site will house hundreds of thousands of football images of from the 100 year-old archives of the Mirror Group, which includes papers the People, the Sunday Mirror and the daily Mirror.

Textual commentary will be provided for in online articles and blogs.

The details of the business plan are elusive, but is known that revenue will be drawn in from advertising and sponsorships. Media Week predicted last month that the site will make commercial arrangements with professional clubs.

The site will form part of the Mirror Group Digital network audit, which according to Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic's latest figures, published in late June, is enjoying an 80% year-on-year growth. The Trinity Mirror websites attracted 8,693,581 unique users last month, claiming the highest percentage of users in the UK, 51.62%, translating as 4,487,510 unique users.

A site dedicated to nation's favourite sport will almost certainly boost this already healthy flow of online traffic for the group, while drawing attention to its printed editions.

Sources: The Guardian
Press Gazette
Media Week