USAToday Fights for Its Life, Literally

USAToday has found an interesting way to battle the growing challenges facing journalism: attack them with a little Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The newspaper, which has recently added a number of online communities to its website, USAToday.com, will spice things up a bit with its latest offering, MMA Fighting Stances.

That's right. Among the paper's new blogs -- like Hotel Check-In, for business travelers, and The Oval, which will track the Obama administration -- is a blog dedicated to all things aggression: "mixed martial arts," the no-holds-barred brawling that has become a form of entertainment for some.

USAToday will be the only national newspaper to cover mixed martial arts, which the paper will tie in with its sports section. That means men wrestling in cages pictured beside the clean-cut Tiger Woods and the venerable New York Yankees. The content seems a little specific: kind of like building an American Idol blog in the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section.

In a climate that's certainly making advertising-based media companies sweat, Gannett, USAToday's parent company, may be trying to stay ahead of the competition by expanding into more niche territory; after all, mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship are growing increasingly popular among men aged 18 to 34, a desirable demographic for today's quickly vanishing advertisers.

"If I had to guess, I'd say they are trying to capture a coveted audience for advertisers," Chris Palmquist, a partner at mixedmartialarts.com, says of the mainstream newspaper's new blog.

At the same time, Palmquist adds, "They're trying to keep up with the Joneses" -- Yahoo, AOL, and other portals that have the reach to target many niches for their advertisers. If that's the case, USAToday could be in for a real fight.

"Most of the major sites have inked partnership deals with existing MMA websites to draw fans and build content," Palmquist said. Being late to the party may leave USAToday struggling on the ground in a submission hold.

Gannett announced in January that fourth-quarter earnings-per-share for 2008 dropped to $0.69 from $1.06 in the same quarter for 2007. Just ahead of first-quarter 2009 earnings (which are scheduled to be released tomorrow) the company may be pulling out all the stops to give them a fighting chance for Q2.

by Marisa Rindone