User-Centric Design Is Also Ad-Centric Design For ESPN

ESPN.com believes less is more when it comes to digital design (and I’d tend to agree).
According to The New York Times, the sports site is about to go a major design overhaul. Currently, sports fans are greeted by “intense coverage of every major sport from the get-go.”
John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president for content, says “There can be a thing as too much.”
Making ESPN.com as appealing to visitors as possible — and thus to advertisers — has taken on greater importance as the economic recession in general and in auto sales in particular have put pressure on the company’s television ad sales.
The new ESPN.com will give advertisers more options for displaying messages on its most heavily visited pages.