The sports news brand Front Office Sports will launch its first mobile app Sept. 1, the first of two major product launches from the publisher in recent weeks.
The release precedes the Sept. 14 debut of Front Office Sports Tonight, a nationally syndicated daily television show, where the digitally native publisher expands into linear programming for the first time.
The mobile app, designed in-house but built in partnership with the developer Pug Pig, aims to deepen engagement by offering its most loyal audiences a dedicated home for Front Office Sports content and its slew of new programming.
“We have grown from being a newsletter business into a website, social channels, YouTube, and, beginning this month, linear television,” said vice president of marketing and strategy Victoria Baldwin. “Eighty-one percent of our audience say that engaging with FOS is a daily habit, so we knew that if we created an app, people would come to it.”
The app’s robust data signals could, in future, better inform editorial decisions, said Baldwin.
In October 2024, the sports news brand sold a majority ownership stake to RedBird IMI, a joint investment fund led by former CNN executive Jeff Zucker. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
This year, Front Office Sports is pacing to surpass $20 million in revenue and achieve profitability, according to chief executive and founder Adam White.
The company, which is almost entirely ad-funded, will introduce additional advertising inventory and exclusive sponsorship opportunities in the app, including The Pole Position, an exclusive takeover of its landing page.
The new offerings also reflect a growing trend, as publishers embrace video and launch apps in response to declining web traffic, a result of disruption posed by artificial intelligence.
Over the last two years, The New York Times added a vertical video Watch tab to its app, People Magazine introduced an app-exclusive reality show, and Eater belatedly launched a mobile platform of its own.
Front Office Sports is less affected by traffic fluctuations than its peers given its origins as a newsletter publisher, according to White, but the app gives it a more direct line into its audiences.
Video, games, and no newsletters
In total, the app will have five separate tabs: Now, Read, Watch, Play, and For You.
Together, the sections will make available all the content that lives on the website, in addition to multimedia programming and some exclusive elements.
