January 22, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Bleacher Report’s new initiatives in women’s sports coverage
By The Next
Arkins: 'It's been a long time coming'
On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Gigi Speer sits down with VP, Head of Program Strategy of Bleacher Report Katie Arkins to discuss the platform’s new enterprises and goals for women’s sports coverage. They discuss the new Candace Parker “Trophy Room” show, the ways Bleacher Report will incorporate Unrivaled, and more.
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Speer and Arkins start out the show by discussing what the energy has been like in the Bleacher Report newsroom lately, with the launch of B/R W, the company’s new women-focused brand. “It’s something we’ve been working on for months now, so it’s been a long time coming,” Arkins says.
B/R W’s connection with TNT Sports and collaboration with Unrivaled’s debut has also created somewhat of a symbiosis, as Arkins explains. “Time is a flat circle with all of the exciting things that we’re bringing together in a short period of time.”
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Later on, Speer and Arkins discuss B/R W’s new show, Candace Parker’s trophy room. “This was a collaboration between Candace and our content team,” Arkins says. “They are just incredible at building shows that help to give athletes a voice and that map to what their brand is.” Bleacher Report has extensive experience producing shows with male athletes, and so, as Arkins explains, “Candace is the perfect individual to extend this with on the women’s sports side. … She has so many accolades that you couldn’t even go through every one, because it is ridiculous how just how many there are.”
Speer and Arkins close out the episode by discussing how sports media culture is built in America. “I think that sports and media have been intertwined so much throughout history,” Arkins says, and she points to how Bleacher Report is adapting to the changing media landscape in 2025.
“Here, we at B/R W sports are partnering with Unrivaled to use our social platforms to help fans understand the rules of this entirely new league that is going to be incredibly exciting, and that is innovative in so many different ways.”
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