After three decades covering college basketball for several outlets such as SI and The Athletic, Seth Davis is launching a new start-up media venture: HoopsHQ.
The website will be centered around women’s and men’s college basketball with a forefront on social media and written content.
Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy broke the news, saying the site will launch on Oct. 28.
“We want to give a blend of new and old, right? Davis told Awful Announcing. “We’re a digital company — we’re not putting it in the paper and we’re going to be very young and forward-looking in our social media strategy.”
Davis referenced a line from the movie Almost Famous: “Just make us look cool.” A modern company with an emphasis on social media with the rest to follow.
He even hired Danny Saied, the site’s social media editor, first, before hiring Slam writer Alex Squadron.
The team also brought on Lyndsey D’Arcangelo as the senior women’s correspondent who Davis dubbed a rockstar (and who is also an Awful Announcing contributor).
As far as the mantra for Hoops HQ, Davis said “We love college basketball. We want to have fun. We’re serious about our fun. You want to spend a little bit of time in your week consuming and consuming our content is the plan.”
During his time at The Athletic, Davis remembers observing the Dashboard numbers on the website and seeing what drove traffic.
Just like the website, Hoops HQ will be behind a paywall at a cost of $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
“The stories that always perform the best were the longer, deeper stories so this notion of ‘Oh, you know there’s no attention span, and people — you know — won’t pay for content,’ It’s like, well people pay for content every day. So you have to give them something worth paying for, right?”
After 30 years in the industry, Davis has a pretty good gauge on college basketball fans. After all, he’s one himself.
“I’d want to be reading it,” Davis said.
The experience introduced him to many people creating relationships in the “big neighborhood” that is college basketball coverage. More intimate and more accessible.
Hoops HQ launches Oct. 28 — well, technically it’s already launched, as Davis points out — that’s more of a “pump date.”
[Front Office Sports, HoopsHQ on Instagram]
About Jessica Kleinschmidt
Jess is a baseball fan with Reno, Nev. roots residing in the Bay Area. She is the host of "Short and to the Point" and is also a broadcaster with the Oakland A's Radio Network. She previously worked for MLB.com and NBC Sports Bay Area.