When SportingNews.com announced back in March that it was doing away with hosting fantasy games, the plan was to refocus the site to really center on content. In the middle of that focus is the new Fantasy Source platform.

Fantasy Source has long been the subscription area for fantasy sports content (primarily football and baseball) at SportingNews.com, but the recent relaunch involved changing the interface to greatly enhance customization.

Upon arrival, a registered subscriber ($40 for the year) now faces a page that looks like a clipboard of widgets, which it basically is. You control which content buckets appear on the page — choosing among items such as player rankings, player news (centered on your selected players) and stat projections — and dragging each box to your preferred spot.

Much of the content is also customizable, from controlling which players you track to inputting your own scoring settings to cater rankings and projections to your league. (An example of the extent of the scoring flexibility: You can choose among 49 categories for kicker scoring alone.)

“The emphasis on customization and personalization of information is what makes this product unique,” Geoff Shaw, Sporting News’ VP of digital media, said in the press release. “With personally relevant and tailored tools, analysis and stats, we deliver our users a valuable and engaging experience and deliver our advertisers a valuable and highly-engaged audience.”

The platform also allows for importing rosters from leagues hosted elsewhere, which will automatically tailor features to fit that player group. The site currently only supports imports from Yahoo!, though. Although Yahoo! hosts more leagues than anyone else, that will need to be expanded to better serve subscribers.

Shaw told FSB.com that SN is negotiating with other major operators to increase that lineup and that his team has pre-loaded the default scoring settings from top hosts such as Yahoo! and CBS Sports to make it easier for users to customize stats and rankings.

“By tweaking league settings, all stats related tools reorganize to fit the scoring system, meaning point-per-reception leagues will have a different top-200 than a standard yardage-only league,” Shaw said.

For the new focus to work overall, it was likely necessary for Sporting News to build out its Fantasy Source site and deliver something different. The fantasy content landscape has become densely populated, with outlets all over the place touting free fantasy football advice and analysis (and the same goes for other sports). In addition, the big league-hosting sites all have their own methods of delivering player news and other fantasy content.

Sporting News has long been a valued source for general sports content as well as fantasy-specific material and has made interesting moves in other areas in recent years — such as cutting its magazine back to bi-weekly issues and launching Sporting News Today, the daily “e-paper” that has since gone pay — to navigate a changing media landscape. It’ll be interesting, again, to see how consumers respond to the new Fantasy Source.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Apparently frustrated Android-owning fantasy football players will finally get their wish when Yahoo! introduces a team-management app for the line of smart phones in time for this season.

– Footballguys.com has partnered with FantasyFootballCalculator.com to attach its Rate My Team application to FF Calculator mock drafts.

– SportingNews.com has rolled out a redesigned site for its Fantasy Source subscription area.

– One always has to take message-board threads with at least a dash of salt, but this is an interesting discussion from the Rotoworld boards about player opinions of fantasy basketball “experts.” There are some fantasy analysts in various sports who take their words as gospel, so it’s good to get a dose from time to time of some thoughts within the target audience.

– SportsBusinessSims.com, supports and markets platforms that allow students (think college) to try their hand at making business decisions for sports entities. This promotional video leads off with the proposal of making the XFL work (if “He Hate Me” couldn’t do it, I don’t know …) and the “flagship” product centered on the Oakland Athletics.

– The SUPERDRAFT Vegas fantasy football event has announced that it will include a performance by Snoop Dogg. No word on whether the Pop Warner football coach will also drop some knowledge (or is that knizz-owledge?).

– ESPN the company will reportedly work more closely with ESPN The Magazine going forward, a move that includes moving much of the staff from New York City to Bristol.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

Company: Sporting News Fantasy Games
Launch date: 2000
Became full-time operation: 2000

Whether you’re strictly a baseball fan, a sports fan in general, a fantasy player or just an old lover of numbers, it’s tough to think of a news source more ingrained in the fabric of American sports than Sporting News. Here at FSB.com, though, we’re only concerned with the fantasy portion, so we asked Fantasy Source senior editor George Winkler to answer a few questions.

1) Anyone, like me, who remembers receiving The Sporting News in its newsprint form likely remembers the fantasy entry forms that appeared in them. How long have you guys been doing fantasy in any form, and what have been the significant landmarks as far as the contest/game hosting goes?
We’ve been covering fantasy since 1991 when we published our first fantasy baseball yearbook. In 1994, we added a fantasy football yearbook.

In 2000, Sporting News launched the Fantasy Source website. Shortly after that, Sporting News, which was owned by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures at the time, bought Small World Fantasy Games. And that’s when things really started to take off.

On a personal note, I came to the Fantasy Source website in 2003 after seven years as an editor for SportingNews.com.

2) SportingNews.com launched in 1997, but it wasn’t until 2001 that Sporting News Fantasy Games became its own property following the purchase of Small World Fantasy Games. How did fantasy work during those first four years or so online before the acquisition?
I talked to my former boss before answering this one. And he said that before Fantasy Source came into existence in 2000 there were years when we published supplements to the yearbooks and mailed or faxed them to readers before draft day. Can you imagine that?

But that was back when the Internet was in its infancy, so fantasy owners appreciated our mailings and faxes, and it helped to build a loyal following.

3) What did the purchase of Small World mean for the whole SN fantasy operation — both in terms of real offerings and broader company philosophy? Why did SN decide to take over its fantasy contests?
I’d imagine the strategy was to have an integrated fantasy website where in one place you could play a game and get the advice needed to win it. Plus, when our fantasy writers see something they’d like to improve with the game, they can have conversations with the game programmers and make the necessary changes since we control the game.

4) When did Sporting News start providing fantasy analysis, and what was the impetus for its beginning?
If you’re talking about daily analysis, that started with the Fantasy Source website in 2000. And at the basic level, it meant posting as many player updates as we could that had a fantasy spin. That was the important point we wanted to make; we didn’t just want to give readers news. We wanted to analyze the fantasy implications of that news so the reader could make an informed decision with his or her fantasy team.

5) Can you describe the evolution of SN’s fantasy content up to the Fantasy Source of today? Why is fantasy missing from the current incarnation of the magazine and the new e-mail daily Sporting News Today?
We started with player nuggets and rankings, which we thought were the basis of any fantasy advice. We added expert columns, stat projections, and tools like the Player Analyzer, which compares the 5×5 values for hitters and pitchers. There has been a lot of trial and error, but that’s to be expected. This is a very competitive field and everyone is looking for an edge.

As far as the magazine and SN Today, we are and will continue to be in those sections as we strive to reach the fantasy reader in all areas. We’ll have a six-page spread in the March 16 issue of the magazine that will be devoted to fantasy. We provided fantasy content for SN Today on a weekly basis during football season and on a daily basis during baseball season. We will continue to do so. We’re also launching a new daily fantasy newsletter for baseball.

6) SportingNews.com’s fantasy game offerings include basketball, hockey, college football, golf and NASCAR. How come the analytical content only extends to baseball and football? Any plans for that to change?
Adding that type of coverage is always on the table for us. Hopefully, it will be part of our next step. As fantasy continues to grow, I hope we will grow with it. I’m particularly intrigued by the area of college football. I think that could be big, especially down here in the South where Sporting News is now located (in Charlotte).

7) The Fantasy Sports Trade Association mentions The Sporting News as one of the initial players in its creation, and SN is also part of the Fantasy Sports Association. What sort of role(s) has the company tried to play in the fantasy industry to this point? What part should it play going forward?
In the beginning, I’m guessing we joined to get in on the ground level of something special and because we believed it was important. Also, by having Sporting News’ name involved with fantasy it probably added some legitimacy to the industry. But now I think we’ve moved beyond that and into an era when fantasy is generally accepted into everyday sports conversations.

Now, I think it’s important for these organizations to continue to provide a place where good ideas and good talent can come forward. I have met a lot of good people through these organizations and some of those relationships have led to business deals that are making Sporting News a better place for the fantasy reader.

8 ) Much of SN’s Fantasy Source content resides behind a subscription wall, but some remains free either permanently or initially. Can you describe how that works — what’s public and what subscribers get?
Our fantasy blogs and player updates are free, which is a good portion of information when you think about it. We’re posting 8-10 times per day (an average of 300 words per post) in the blogs on various topics relating to fantasy, along with the 80-100 player updates per day.

Our expert columns, rankings, stat projections, dollar values, draft kit and other special tools are behind the wall. But we offer all that at the low price of $4.99 per month or $19.99 per season (which includes a subscription to the magazine).

9) What effect did the introduction of that pay wall have on Web readership, and how important is the fantasy segment of your subscriber base to the success of SportingNews.com (which is largely made up of free content)?
At first readers were vocal about their displeasure for pay content. But then a curious thing happened - some people started buying it. And eventually we developed a community of loyal Fantasy Source readers. In fact, we have a significant percentage of readers who come to SportingNews.com primarily for our fantasy content. Those readers are always forefront in our minds. Even after all these years, it feels great when a reader is happy with our site.

10) How integrated is the fantasy staff with the rest of the SN staff? How closely tied are fantasy and non-fantasy content?
We sit in the same room as the editors who run SportingNews.com. So when news breaks, we can quickly communicate that the fantasy analysis is ready to include in their story packages. Also, now that the majority of Sporting News is under one roof in Charlotte and owned by American City Business Journals, it’s much easier to get things done. For example, now I can walk down the hall and discuss site strategy, site design, marketing, game improvements, etc., whereas before I was talking to people on a conference call and didn’t have a relationship with them. Now, we all feel like we’re all working together toward a common goal.