How EssentiallySports' creator program benefits both sides of the equation

"In July, for example, EssentiallySports hired a top women's basketball player, Natasha Howard, to create editorial content around the WNBA All-Star Game, including a letter to Howard's younger self that Tibarewal said went viral among older readers. During the game, EssentiallySports' newsletter open rate spiked from roughly 38 percent to 49 percent, with click-through rates increasing by over 50 percent and CPMs rising accordingly, per Tibarewal. Search traffic to Natasha-Howard-related articles on EssentiallySports spiked by 72 percent before and after the event, with EssentiallySports recording a 25 percent increase in average clicks per user across its women's-sports-focused "She Got Game" newsletters during the campaign week."

""Our time on page goes up overall when people poll and comment more, so of course, [ad revenue] goes up," Tibarewal said."

"In addition to prominent athletes like Howard, EssentiallySports' creator program also involves digital-native creators such as Chloe Mitchell and tennis creator Nathan " NotYourCountryClub " Walroth. Due to the range of creators participating in the program, Tibarewal declined to share a specific deal structure, saying EssentiallySports' content fees paid to athletes start at $1,000 per post and go up "as high as it gets.""

EssentiallySports employed creators to produce in-house video and editorial content around major sporting events to drive audience engagement. The publisher hired athletes and digital-native creators to create event-focused material, including viral personal essays and targeted newsletters. Campaigns produced measurable lifts: newsletter open rates rose from 38% to 49%, click-through rates increased by over 50%, search traffic to featured-creator articles spiked 72%, and average clicks per user on a women's-sports newsletter rose 25% during a campaign week. Content fees start at $1,000 per post for athletes and scale upward. Increased polling and commenting correlated with higher time-on-page and ad revenue.

Read at Digiday