East County
ABOUT EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM
THANKS TO OUR
U.S. ARMED FORCES
EAST COUNTY SPORTS.com.... Created by the sports staff of The Daily Californian (1892-2000). When the newspaper folded on Jan. 31, 2000, we realized there was a distinct need for local sports coverage in our community, so we started this website the very next morning (Feb. 1, 2000). We're now in our 13th Year covering the Metro-East Region of San Diego County. Our readers hail from all 50 states and more than 70 countries.
Founders: Bill Dickens, Nick Pellegrino, R.S. Scott.
Staff: Bill Dickens, Wanda Dickens, Nick Pellegrino.
Correspondents:
Andrew Smith.
Contributing Photographers: Frank Price, Nathan Price,
Tori Mills, Leslie Autry, Ruth Mims, Tony Bordine, Don De Mars.

We cover sports here (watch KPBS video,
"San Diego: Above & Beyond"):




THE CITY OF EL CAJON ANNOUNCES:

IN HONOR OF THE 12th ANNUAL
EAST COUNTY ALL-STAR GAMES
& FOR 10 YEARS OF SERVICE
TO THE EAST COUNTY COMMUNITY,
SAT., APR. 24, 2010 WAS DECLARED:

EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM DAY

THANK YOU TO MAYOR LEWIS
AND THE EL CAJON CITY COUNCIL
FOR THE PROCLAMATION

OVERVIEW / HISTORY

We are East County Sports.com, created by the sports staffwriters from the 108-year old newspaper, The Daily Californian.

After the newspaper's parent company went out of business on January 31, 2000, the sportswriters recognized there was a distinct need for continuing coverage of high school and community college sports in Metro-East area of San Diego County, so we started this website – now in our 13th year of operation. (Please note: Since that time, another party purchased the "Californian" name and started a weekly newspaper – this is NOT us).

LEARN MORE ABOUT
EAST COUNTY SPORTS
Overview / History
Coverage Area
Advertisers' Benefits
Publication Schedule
ECS vs. Local Newspapers
Competitive Rates
Sign Up Today
CONTACT US
Updated June 2012  

 NEWS FROM JUNE 27, 2006 

Website nominated for national Knight Award

East County Sports.com
BETHESDA, Md. (6-27-06) – East County Sports.com, which has operated since February 2000 and quickly became the No. 1 source for news and information on high school and community college athletics in the Metro-East portion of San Diego County, will soon be competing for a national award.

ECS has been placed in the mix for the inaugural Knight Public Service Award, the newest of nine major award categories conducted by the Online News Association as part of its Online Journalism Awards, a comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in English-language Web journalism.

The Knight Award judges websites which, according to its posted rules, "performs a public service through compelling coverage of a vital community issue or event" and that "the impact of the coverage on the community will be a major factor in the judging."

The new award is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Online Journalism Awards are conducted in cooperation with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

"As more Americans receive their news and information online, it remains critical that online journalism be held to the highest standards of the profession," said Michael Parks, director of the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC. "We are delighted that Knight Foundation continues to support outstanding journalism and look forward to using this award to spotlight the best online journalism that serves its readers and the public at large."

The Online News Association is an organization composed largely of professional online journalists. It has more than 800 professional members, whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation, as well as academic members and others interested in the development of online journalism. For further information, visit:www.journalists.org.

The submission for the Knight Award is another in a series of milestones for East County Sports. Most recently, in 2005, one of our writers was recognized with an excellence in community service award by the San Diego County Fair Association.

We offer MORE than all the other East County news services combined:
MORE stories, composed by award-winning writers;
MORE daily coverage and updates (compared to their weekly and bi-weekly coverage);
MORE photographs (many by award-winning photographers);
MORE features stories; MORE accurate statistics, schedules and standings;
– and much, much MORE, including our exclusive All-East County™ team selections.

Indeed, "we are" East County Sports!

The Grossmont Unified High School District even recognized one of our founders for his more than 30 years in covering the athletics programs of its 11 member schools with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Plus, the GUHSD is a supporting partner in East County Sports.com’s continuing coverage of its schools and sports activities, covering more than 350,000 people in our region of the county.


COVERAGE AREA

Schools Covered – We cover all 11 public high schools in the GUHSD, including El Capitan, Monte Vista, Mount Miguel, Santana and El Cajon Valley of the Grossmont Valley League; plus Valhalla, Granite Hills, Grossmont, Helix, Steele Canyon and West Hills of the Grossmont Hills League. In addition, we cover Christian High, a private high school which plays in the San Diego City Conference, plus smaller Citrus Conference schools in Foothills Christian High of La Mesa and River Valley Charter School in Lakeside.

We also cover – Grossmont and Cuyamaca community colleges of the 9-member Pacific Coast Conference, and San Diego Christian College (formerly Christian Heritage College) of the NAIA Golden State Athletic Conference. In addition, we cover several Eastern League schools in selected sports (including Patrick Henry and Mira Mesa high schoools). And there is also our new "In The Community" section, which covers other items of interesy, like the Lakeside BMX rider who qualified for the Olympics, a local visit by Heiusman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow, and much, much more.

VISITING COUNTRIES (74)

American Samoa, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, The Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (Taipei), Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), U.S. Virgin Islands and Yemen.

These are visitors since
our website redesign
in October 2005

Coverage Area – The website was created to serve the student-athletes, families and residents in all of our communities, including El Cajon, Fletcher Hills, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, La Mesa, Jamul, Rancho San Diego, Casa de Oro, Mount Helix, Granite Hills, Alpine, Lakeside, Santee, Crest and many, many others. In addition, since our website re-design in October 2005, we have welcomed readers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., all U.S. territories, and more than 70 foreign countires.

ADVERTISERS' BENEFITS

To our advertisers, we offer an attractive audience to our sponsors and advertisers, including:

More than 3,000 readers per day – that’s upwards of 100,000 readers per month! – wider circulation than the three local weekly newspapers combined! Plus, these readers are high-volume, repeat traffic by local customers interested in coverage of local events – and the local businesses that support one of the fastest-growing websites in the West! For the 2006-07 school year, we generated 1,019,000 hits! In 2007-08, it was well over 1.1 million hits! And in 2008-09 through 2011-12, it was 1.2 million hits! – we're still growing while newspaper circulation continues to tumble.

Our service is fully available and utilized – by the East County community, as the website is presently averaging 3,600 hits per day during the school year (more than 6,000 on many recent CIF playoff dates) – That’s wider circulation than the local weekly newspapers! – Simply by word-of-mouth promotion. With more than ONE MILLION hits over the past seven school-years alone, East County Sports.com has now registered more than 8.0 million hits in our last seven full seasons of service. These statistics are verified by FastClick.com and StatCounter.com

Cost Effective – Reach your customer effectively by target marketing at a fraction of what it costs to advertise in print, on radio, or television. With East County Sports, you enjoy peace of mind knowing that your advertising dollars are reaching 100% of consumers who demand our service – all at a reasonable cost.

Great Demographics – Our cliental are high-end consumers who own and utilize personal computers in their homes, or computer-savvy students using computers at their schools. Our hit rate between men and women is almost equal, and we reach all age categories, with readers in all 50 states and 74 foreign countries, including five countries in the Middle East – our U.S. troops reading about their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.

The Names You Know – We are locally owned and operated by people you know, and have cultivated long-time relationships with our schools' coaches, administrators and athletes. Our core of charter staff writers possess more than 100 years of combined experience covering East County – our track record is unmatched!

Media Partners – East County Sports has gained media partners, including the San Diego Hall of Champions and the Online News Association, ensuring an expanding base of readers to the website and other collateral activities, such as our annual East County All-Star Basketball Game, serving as voting panel members to the San Diego Hall of Champions/ Breitbard Athletic Association's All-County CIF selection committee, and our participation in a variety of high school sports polls for The North County Times and the San Diego Sportswriters-Sportscasters Association. Our writers also contribute to The San Diego Union Tribune, North County Times, Imperial Valley Press, ESPNHS/Cal-Hi Sports, MaxPreps, Team USA.org, and many, many more.

Indeed, "we are" East County Sports!

Did you or your parents save newspaper clippings from your days as an outstanding high school athlete? Do these articles bring back great memories of your achievements on the playing field? Please join us in our mission to give our children something to remember as remarkable athletes of the 21st Century.

Please contact our sales staff at: info@EastCountySports.com

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

East County Sports.com receives "hits" (or visits to our website) throughout the week thanks to a publication schedule that encourages our readers to return often. Here is a sample of a typical publication schedule during the high school football season:

Weekends Game Coverage, including stories and photos
Mon./Tue. Updated East County statistics; East County players of the week
Tue./Wed. New SD County weekly poll released
Thurs./Fri. Previews of upcoming games from our "Fearless Forecaster"
Anytime Breaking news and interest stories, including exclusives published on our website long before any of the major metro newspapers or radio/television stations run it (Yes, the PPR copies us!)

And that’s just prep football. Don’t forget about our exclusive coverage of Grossmont College, the 2005 J.C. Grid-Wire National Champions of community college football, going on to win 41 of 43 regular season games and a national-best eight playoff games from 2002 to 2006.

And Remember... unlike a newspaper, people are motivated to visit our website
because they want to read it. They need to go to their computer, get online and logon
to our website – and they do!... ADVERTISE TODAY!

So even though our hit total may be equivalent to the listed circulation claims of the local weekly newspapers, how many of their readers choose to read sports? A half, a quarter or even much less?

With East County Sports.com, 100 percent of our readers want and desire the coverage we provide year-round on high school and community college sports in our community, 100 percent of the time – and it’s the exact target audience you also want to reach, too!


EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM vs. The Local Newspapers

The Differences Between
EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM and The Local Newspapers
 
EAST COUNTY SPORTS.COM
Local Weekly Newspapers
Readership
East County Sports.com is accessed by people who go out of there way to read about East County sports activities; including high school, community college and other sporting events, teams and participants from our region.
The newspapers have a passive following, with readers holding interest in various sections of the paper. Thus, they may not be interested in sports at all, or only marginally.
What we cover
High school and community college on a full-time basis – that’s all we do!
High school and other sports on a sporadic basis.
Media Association Memberships
San Diego Hall of Champions/Breitbard Assn. Online News Association
San Diego Sportswriters/Sportscasters Assn.
NO,
NO,
NO!
Sponsorships
& Community
We sponsor East County Senior All-Star Games
in basketball, and many other events –
Ask about our latest opportunities!
None
All-East County™
We’ve been making selections for our exclusive All-East County™ teams for more than 30 years.
None
Local Ownership
We were founded and operated by people you know, award-winning writers who possess more than 80 years of combined experience covering sports in the East County.
The new weekly newspaper, which replaced us, is now on its fourth ownership group since
The Daily Californian folded in January 2000.
News & Updates

We are updated almost daily, with breaking news as it’s happening. Plus, we have the space to dedicate to sports, so we are not limited to a 12-inch story due to space; we can write as needed.

Additionally, we offer scores, standings and statistics for many sports, including updates on newly established records and milestones.

The weekly papers are updated on a weekly basis but due to deadlines, may be behind by as much as 7-12 days at a time – not very timely.

Plus, due to space limitations, only a handful of sports are covered at any one time.



COMPETITIVE RATES 
(ASK ABOUT DISCOUNTS FOR FIRST-TIME ADVERTISERS)

ANNUAL RATES (as of June 2012)  
HOW WE ARRIVED AT THESE RATES

CORPORATE SPONSORS – Negotiable (minimum $1,000/month for 10 months), receive banner ad near top of the Front Page (800 pixels wide x 100 pixels tall).

Regular 1x1 Space (150 pixels wide x 100 pixels tall; each can link to another page with larger ad or to your own website... or both!):
FRONT PAGE –
$ 2,000/year (you get 12 consecutive calendar months).
INSIDE PAGE – $ 800/school year for all major sports (ads gets rotated from football in fall, to basketball in winter, to baseball-softball in spring).
INSIDE PAGE – $ 300/Single-sport page, or community colleges, or speciaity page, like "Clips & Quips" or "The Alumni Page."

OTHER: Contact a sales rep for Sponsorship Opportunities, including Player of the Week awards, All-Star Games, and much more. We also accept full and partial tradeouts with approval. We also accept monthly payments to aid your cash flow.

We charge half the amount than the local newspapers, yet your ad is: A) viewed daily instead of weekly; B) your ad can be on the front page; and C) you get the results the newspapers promise but rarely delivery.

Plus, we offer promotional opportunities, like East County Athletes of the Week, All-Star Games and more. And your ad on East County Sports.com can be linked to your own website or email address at no additional charge – newspapers can't do that.

 
METHODOLOGY No. 1
A) The typical 2x3 ad in the local weekly newspapers is $150 per week. With multi-purchase, it could go as
low as $110 per week.
B) Take that $110, times 39 weeks of the school year (although, we do publish during the summer) and you’d spend $4,390.
WE CHARGE HALF THIS RATE!
 
METHODOLOGY No. 2
A) The typical ad in the local school game-program is at least $100.
B) $100 at 16 East County schools
= $1,600... times three seasons (fall-football, winter-basketball/soccer, spring-baseball/softball) = $4,800.
WE CHARGE HALF THIS RATE!

Remember – We are a local company dealing with local businesses,
so we will work with you.
YOU WANT:
OUR RESPONSE:
Monthly payments to assist with cash flow
YES!
Your ad linked to your website
YES!
To avoid complicated contracts, lawyers, and legalize
YES!
Assistance for simple layout and design of your ad
YES!

SIGN UP TODAY! Please join us and support our local student-athletes. Thank you!
(Cut and Paste into your email browser)

Your Company  
Contact Person  
Address  
City/State/ZIP  
Phone  
FAX  
Email  
Ad Space/Size Basic (1 x 1) is: 150 pixels wide x 100 pixels tall.
Location on ECS.com  
Duration Basic plans run annually thru Aug. 10th.
Other  
Price See above chart. Tradeouts are okay with approval.
Payment Plan Pay in full or make monthly payments.
Other  
Event Sponsorship  
Details  
Signature/Date  
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