ESPN Acquires High School-focused SchoolSports Inc.

ESPN announced it has reached an agreement to acquire SchoolSports Inc., a high school-focused sports and lifestyle media company and publisher of RISE magazine. The company also publishes Gridiron, Hardwood and GIRL magazines for its teen audience. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“ESPN’s acquisition of SchoolSports and its assets represents our continued commitment to providing our core fans with compelling high school sports content which will be used across all ESPN platforms,” says James Brown, ESPN’s senior vice president, new business development. “We plan to grow our 12- to 17-year-old audience with a complementary fan base of student athletes and their fans.”

SchoolSports CEO Jim Kaufman will continue to run SchoolSports, and will report to Brown and Gary Hoenig, editor in chief, ESPN The Magazine and general manager, ESPN Publishing.

“It is an exciting time for SchoolSports, its assets and ESPN,” says Kaufman. “We are thrilled to be joining the ESPN family and look forward to growing our properties and sharing our unique high school content with a larger fan base.”

RISE Magazine publishes 25 regionally customized issues nine times each year and has a circulation of 910,000 and a readership of 1.9 million.