Exciting News: USA Today Sports Media Group Acquires Quickish

Republished from Quickish (via this Wall Street Journal story):

I have very exciting news to announce: Quickish has been acquired by USA Today Sports Media Group. In conjunction with the deal, I will be joining the group, effective today.

I couldn’t be more excited. USATSMG has a fundamental commitment to serving fans in comprehensive, innovative ways that totally fit with the effort I have put into Quickish and the type of things I have helped build throughout my career in digital media. It is a great company full of monumentally talented, motivated folks that I am implicitly proud to call my colleagues and with whom I look forward to doing huge things.

This is a great moment to offer some thanks:

First of all, thank YOU: Readers’ enthusiastic support of Quickish allowed it to get off to a fast start, find a distinct place in the sports-news landscape and continuously iterate, trying to get better. Thank you to everyone who has told their friends about it, chimed in on Twitter and Facebook or sent in a tip of something that Quickish should be showcasing. There is nothing as thrilling as creating something that anyone ever says they “love.” It is a privilege, frankly.

Thank you to the hundreds (thousands?) of talented writers, reporters, columnists, analysts, pundits, Twitter quipsters and everyone else whose excellent efforts make sense of the world (sometimes immediately, sometimes after measured consideration) and deserve a wider audience through platforms like Quickish.

I consume a lot -- hoo boy: a lot -- of sportswriting, on the Web, on Twitter and elsewhere. The best (and an admirable number of folks have qualified at one time or another) is better than it has ever been. That’s an amazing thing for us fans. I can’t begin to list folks by name here, but the beauty of Quickish is that you can pop by the site and immediately spot exactly who makes the list (or at least one list) at any given moment or for any given hot topic. And to those who have used their platforms to support or promote Quickish, a sincere thanks (please keep it up!)

Thank you to the network of friends and advisors to the company -- insightful and generous folks within the media and start-up communities in New York City were particularly inspiring and helpful (I can’t even begin to showcase a list because I’m afraid of whom I would unintentionally miss). There are a lot more people who don’t know me but whose writing and thinking on the media and entrepreneurship who I admire and incorporate constantly. Thank you to Kevin Kearney and the brilliant user-experience talents at Hard Candy Shell, responsible for the look and feel that made Quickish so instantly distinctive, useful and credible. Thank you to Meshach Jackson and Jolly Science, the development shop that built Quickish and made it so easy to edit and publish. Thank you to Jeff Jarvis and City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism for the generous use of a desk while I was developing Quickish, and thank you to Matt Brimer, Brad Hargreaves and the amazing team at General Assembly for giving me a place to grow the company after it launched; both are communities I am proud to be affiliated with. Every start-up founder needs a great lawyer; I got to work with two: Thank you to Josh Buhler of Buhler Duggal & Henry and thanks to Mark Fitzgerald of Wilson Sonsini. (Thanks also to my ace accountant Bradley Smallberg of Smallberg Sorkin.) Finally, a huge thanks to ace editor Michael Katz for believing in the company’s mission and for his invaluable help working on Quickish through much of last year.

Looking ahead, I wanted to thank folks within the leadership at USA Today Sports Media Group: Gracia Martore, Tom Beusse, Jonathan Marshall, Ross Schaufelberger, Dave Morgan, Matt Graham and Mark Pesavento -- they are putting together an absolutely incredible team, top to bottom, with aspirations that are so ambitious that all I want to do is be a part of it.

Most of all, I want to thank my wife, Margery, whose support of me founding a company was not just complete, but necessary for me to get to where we are today -- and certainly to build on it from here to what’s next.

In the meantime, Quickish continues at full strength -- soon to be even greater strength. Here’s at least one thing we know about the continuously changing world of media: It’s not getting any less cluttered, and it is a fundamental tenet of Quickish to help fans keep up (quickly!) with the big things that are happening by hacking thoughtful paths through that clutter. I hope you will visit regularly and continue to tell your friends (and co-workers and family and Twitter followers...) about it. My colleagues at USATSMG innately understand the competitive dynamics behind the Quickish model; with USATSMG’s network, resources and talent, Quickish can become even more useful and valuable for fans. If you want to talk about Quickish -- how it can become even better or how you think you can help -- please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at dan-at-quickish.com.

The first two years of Quickish have been extraordinarily exciting -- the most satisfying (and most thrilling/harrowing!) professional experience of what has been a very fortunate career -- and, more than any point in my working life, I cannot wait for what comes next. I am committed to raising the bar for an even more exciting and satisfying ride, always focused on serving fans for the better. Thanks again for being a part of it.

-- Dan