But Bernstein made a compelling case for native social and for Omar, and in the end, House of Highlights’ magnitude and potential won out. Besides, committing fully to native social would constitute a drastic shift in strategy, both in term of content and business model. Finocchio says Bleacher Report had made a conscious decision not to enter what he called the “portfolio of brands business” and that many people within the company were hesitant to make an exception for House of Highlights. On the last slide of his presentation, Bernstein recommended Bleacher Report buy House of Highlights.īernstein’s proposal was not embraced right away. That spring, he put together a pitch deck on the importance of native social content - photos, videos and graphics meant to simply increase an outlet’s online following and brand recognition. But with referrals from social failing to grow, Bernstein recognized the need to try something new. Since social media had come along, media outlets had used the platforms to drive traffic to their sites. In many ways, the move was counter-intuitive. The next step was selling the concept to higher-ups at the company. “And for me, that was House of Highlights.”īernstein knew almost immediately that he wanted to bring House of Highlights under Bleacher Report ownership. “We were always trying to be the come-up to ESPN, and I was always worried, who was the come-up to Bleacher Report?” Bernstein recalls. Bernstein saw middle- and high-school kids inhaling House of Highlights’ clips the way he had embraced SportsCenter when he was young. And at a time when most outlets’ social media accounts were serious and matter-of-fact, Raja was tossing emojis and slang into nearly every post. At a time when Instagram was still largely photo-driven, Raja was working in video. After only a week or two of following House of Highlights, Bernstein concluded that Raja had both a unique idea and a unique talent. That’s when it caught the eye of Doug Bernstein, then Bleacher Report’s vice president of social media. By March 2015, only nine months after House of Highlights started up, it had more than half a million followers. Fans on Instagram responded en masse to Raja’s voice and his account’s database of clips. House of Highlights’ rate of growth was almost unbelievable. John Madden docuseries “All Madden” in works from Tom Brady, Religion of Sports, and more.Is the Pac-12 close to a new deal, or are they in trouble as more bidders back away from negotiations?.Brandon Gaudin is the new Braves play by play announcer.Sports Illustrated lays off 17, announces 12 new openings, shifts in division leadership (updated).In those 31 days, it added 258,000 new followers, about twice the overall count of The Ringer and SB Nation combined. In the month of October, House of Highlights earned 537 million video views (fourth most of any Instagram account) and 89 million interactions (ninth most on the platform). Almost all of the videos it posts - highlights, witty photoshops, amusing viral clips - garner more than a million views, and most surpass a thousand comments. It boasts 7.3 million Instagram followers, or slightly more than CNN and Buzzfeed combined. House of Highlights is SportsCenter for the social-media generation. He spends several hours on this daily project, mining material and measuring the pulse of the people, then gets to work curating House of Highlights, one of the most popular accounts on all of Instagram. Many of those messages come addressed to him by name, and some of them, on occasion, are sent from the same professional athletes he watches on TV. Each morning, 23-year-old Omar Raja wakes up at 9 or 9:30 a.m., checks the day’s sports news, opens up Instagram and begins wading through 600 or 700 direct messages.
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