On deck: ChicagoSide, Sun-Times align sports teams

Jonathan Eig

ChicagoSide Sports, the independent sports website featuring original, daily content from some of the city’s top writers and most promising rookies, is teaming with the Sun-Times, the daily long known for its local sports coverage.

Starting Friday, ChicagoSide stories will be linked from suntimes.com and appear in the pages of the paper. The ChicagoSide website, in turn, will feature live, streaming headlines and breaking sports news from the Sun-Times, with links to the paper’s website.

“The Sun-Times has a terrific sports section — with great columnists and beat writers — and ChicagoSide is leading the way online when it comes to innovative stories and rich media. Together, I think both brands get stronger,” said Jonathan Eig, editor-in-chief and co-founder of ChicagoSide Sports.

“With breaking news and opinion pieces from the Sun-Times now available on ChicagoSide, in addition to our great feature stories and videos, we'll have everything Chicago sports fans need. Our web traffic will get another big boost. And our writers are excited about getting their stories in print. So am I.”

Launched last April by Eig and partner Solomon Lieberman, ChicagoSide has been a lively and literate addition to the local media scene, featuring essays by such writers as Richard Babcock, Ira Berkow, James Finn Garner, Michael Hirsley, Sara Paretsky, Paul Shirley, Alan Solomon and Jay Mariotti. Eig, a bestselling author and veteran columnist, also writes frequently for the site.

A previous media partnership with Time Out Chicago concluded last month.

In another cross-promotional deal, ChicagoSide has begun working with Crain's Chicago Business, supplying an online feature every Friday on What We’re Watching, a rundown of the top games for the coming weekend.

ChicagoSide also is moving into the book business, teaming with Agate Publishing of Evanston to produce its own line of books. “Now we'll not only be online, we'll be in newsprint, books, and e-books,” Eig said. “We're still less than a year old, but we're growing fast. I think it shows there's real demand for smart sports content.”