Sports media business on the recruitment path as it targets expansion

Leeds-based Sports media group, Planet Sport, is further developing its site planetsport.com as the home for global sports news, with ambitious plans in place for further growth in 2022.

These include 24-hour rolling sports coverage, expansion into the USA, Australia and Africa, and introducing new sports to the site.

Tim Satchell, managing director – Publishing, Planet Sport, said: “Getting 24 hour rolling coverage going is a focus for us this year, so when you roll out of bed in the morning and reach for your phone, there will be fresh stories on our sites, no matter where you are in the world.”

“We now have 40 full-time journalists and a network of another 50 or so freelancers, with plans in place to hire another 15 permanent journalists this year in the US, Australia, South Africa and here in the UK.”

Planet Sport is also planning more coverage of football and rugby played in the USA and southern hemisphere, and to extend its coverage to include Moto GP, greyhounds, and MMA.

Basketball, NFL, horse racing and darts were also recently launched on PlanetSport.com and these will be expanded with more editorial content throughout the year.

Satchell added: “One of our big areas of investment is going to be sports data. We have traditionally produced plenty of written editorial, but we are now growing our live coverage, building stats widgets to pull into articles and writing more detailed stats analysis.

“This means Planet Sport is currently hiring sports data journalists, who can cover events in granular detail by focusing in and pulling apart the most telling sports stats.”

A cross-network registration platform has recently been rolled out across the company’s sites, allowing audiences to personalise their experience depending on what sport or individual teams they follow, along with the ability to comment, set email preferences, enter competitions, and access archive content.

Alongside this is a project to introduce interactive games and quizzes to Planet Sport.

Nik Keene, chief product officer, leads the technical team behind the scenes. He said: “Publishing is traditionally about journalism, and the model is to finance it through advertising.

“However, Planet Sport sits between that and being a tech and B2B services company. We now have a team of 30 developers, who as well as supporting the publishing side, also creates a wealth of innovative technology products for clients in media, publishing, broadcast, mobile and gaming.”

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