Fortune starts sports business section of website

Fortune launched earlier this week a sports business section to its website, following on the heels of a page for coverage of news about entrepreneurs and start-ups.

It’s the 16th section page on the website and continues a retooling of the website under digital editor Aaron Task, who joined the magazine three months ago after running Yahoo Finance.

The page will currently have a staff of one — Benjamin Snyder — and other staffers will contribute to the page on a case-by-case basis, said Task. For example, Task said that the page will contain a lot of coverage around business angles of the Super Bowl and the Olympics this year.

“It’s still in development, but it came out of some of the success we have had in covering related topics, whether it’s Ronda Rousey or fantasy sports,” said Task in a telephone conversation with Talking Biz News on Thursday. “It’s codifying something we’ve been doing.”

Top stories on the page now include articles about golfer Jordan Spieth’s sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola and the National Football League’s decision to move the Rams to Los Angeles.

“It’s a growing field,” said Task. “I think, clearly, we’re not the first to realize this. But there are similarities about sports and business and who cares about them. And sports is big business. You think about the news this week about the NFL relocating franchises to LA. That’s big news in St. Louis and Los Angeles.”

Snyder, a varsity tennis player at Goucher College, is an associate editor for Fortune.com. As an editor, he helps with the website’s news coverage as well as sports business news and enterprise coverage. He has written for Fortune about IBM’s sponsorship of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the economic impact of the PGA Championship on the state of Wisconsin.

“We’ll see how it does,” said Task. “If there is a lot of traffic and interest, I will make a case to [editor in chief Alan Murray] that we need to hire someone, or relieve Ben of his other duties.”