Biz journal adds sports business beat

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal is adding regular sports business coverage to its paper.

A story on its site states, “Senior Editor Rob Keys, a former sportswriter and columnist, will head up a new column called ‘Keeping Score’ which will focus on the sports business beat. The news column that appeared in that space, ‘New Biz,’ is temporarily discontinued. Items about new businesses will appear in the Industry Report section.

“The Business Journal has always kept an eye on the millions of dollars that flow through the area’s largest sports programs and venues; now we’ll do it more often.

“Keys has done an outstanding job of informing our readers about the business side of the Razorbacks program and holding University of Arkansas’ Athletics Director Jeff Long accountable. A story by Keys and Chris Bahn, a writer for ArkansasSports360.com, garnered a top award for a scoop about the program’s pressure on physician groups to ‘sponsor’ athletics in exchange for business contracts.

“‘Keeping Score’ will be a mix of Keys’ wit, keen commentary and hard-hitting news.”