ESPN : The Making of a Sports Media Empire, Hardcover by Vogan, Travis, ISBN 0252039769, ISBN-13 9780252039768, Brand New, Free shipping in the US

Once a shoestring operation built on plywood sets and Australian rules football, ESPN has evolved into a media colossus. A genius for cross-promotion and its near-mystical rapport with its viewers empower the network to set agendas and create superstars, to curate sports history even as it mainstreams the latest cultural trends. <p>Travis Vogan teams archival research and interviews with an all-star cast to pen the definitive account of how ESPN turned X's and O's into billions of $$$. Vogan's institutional and cultural history focuses on the network since 1998, the year it launched a high-motor effort to craft its brand and grow audiences across media platforms. As he shows, innovative properties like <i>SportsCentury, ESPN The Magazine</i>, and <i>30 for 30</i> built the network's cultural caché. This credibility, in turn, propelled ESPN's transformation into an entity that lapped its run-of-the-mill competitors and helped fulfill its self-proclaimed status as the "Worldwide Leader in Sports." <p>Ambitious and long overdue, <i>ESPN: The Making of a Sports Media Empire</i> offers an inside look at how the network changed an industry and reshaped the very way we live as sports fans.</p></p>