After 122 years, Sporting News leaves St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- As St. Louis frets the possible loss of one icon, another one quietly goes away.

For 122 years, Sporting News called St. Louis home. That ended this weekend when the publication officially moved to Charlotte, N.C.

The move barely drew notice in St. Louis, where the possible purchase of Anheuser-Busch by rival brewer InBev is all the buzz.

The departure of Sporting News was announced in March by American Cities Business Journals, which owns the publication once known as the "Bible of Baseball." Online operations consolidated in Charlotte last summer. Two people in the American Cities office in Charlotte confirmed Monday that the move has taken place, but calls seeking comment from an editor were not returned.

Sporting News had been based in St. Louis since 1886 when it was founded by former newspaper writer Alfred H. Spink as an 8-page broadsheet focusing strictly on baseball.

For years, Sporting News was the go-to publication for hard-core baseball fans, especially those wanting to read box scores -- the publication printed every one from every game.

It wasn't until 1942 that regular coverage of pro football began. Basketball and hockey were added that winter. The publication went to a tabloid format in 1943, but didn't print a color picture until 1967 -- a shot of baseball's Frank Robinson.

The Spink family sold the publication to Times Mirror Co. in 1977.

Competition has increased significantly in recent years with the advent of ESPN Magazine and many sports-related Web sites. Sporting News long ago dropped box scores that are now readily available on the Web.

Times Mirror sold Sporting News to Vulcan Inc., a holding company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, in 2000. In 2006, American Cities purchased the magazine and its online unit, along with book publishing and radio network, for an undisclosed sum.

Thirty-one Sporting News staff members were still working in St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that 17 will move, 11 will leave the company and three will work from their homes in St. Louis.

American Cities is a unit of Advance Publications Inc. It owns more than 40 weekly business newspapers, including the St. Louis Business Journal. It also publishes several specialty and sports publications and owns Street & Smith's Sports Group, publisher of SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.