Reshaping Sports Journalism Through Innovation: An Analysis of L’Équipe Explore’s Strategies, Practices and Output

1 Ramon, X., Rojas-Torrijos, J. L., & Tulloch, C. D. (2024). Reshaping Sports Journalism Through Innovation: An Analysis of L’Équipe Explore’s Strategies, Practices and Output. Journalism Practice, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2024.2418911 RESHAPING SPORTS JOURNALISM THROUGH INNOVATION: AN ANALYSIS OF L’ÉQUIPE EXPLORE’S STRATEGIES, PRACTICES AND OUTPUT Xavier Ramon. Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra José Luis Rojas-Torrijos. Department of Journalism II, University of Seville Christopher D. Tulloch. Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Sports journalism practice faces important challenges deriving from the multiplication of platforms, the acceleration of workflows, the emergence of new entrants and the audiences’ shifting consumption habits. In a bid to overcome those challenges and advance innovation across the board, the French newspaper L’Équipe established a specific unit for that purpose: Explore. By focusing on this case study, this research has examined the formats, output and practices deployed by Explore and evaluated its impact within L’Équipe’s offer. The study is informed by content analysis performed on the projects (N=201) published by Explore over a 32-month timeframe (May 2021 – December 2023), ethnographic work and 8 semi-structured interviews with its employees. Findings reveal that Explore stands out as a leading ‘media lab’ in sports journalism. Through a broad range of formats and a multifaceted agenda, Explore occupies a unique position in terms of delivering cultural capital. Explore embraces alternative production modes that invest in freedom and research while rejecting hyper-accelerated cycles and clickbait-oriented approaches. Such proposition has resonated with audiences and positioned Explore as a cornerstone of L’Équipe’s commercial strategy. Solutions articulated by Explore contribute to the broader discussion of how sports journalism practice can be reshaped in the digital age. 2 KEYWORDS: Sports journalism, practice, innovation, L’Équipe Explore, formats, agenda, content Introduction Over the last few years, the expansion of digital platforms has significantly altered the sports media production and consumption landscape (Daum and Scherer 2018; Hutchins et al. 2019). In this shifting scenario, news organizations embraced innovation to better face the increasing pace and scope of technological advance in the media industry (Küng 2013). More prominently, in specialist journalistic fields (García-Avilés 2021) they searched for creative solutions to present stories and respond to new audiences’ habits and requirements (Pavlik 2021). Sports journalism stands out as one of the most innovative disciplines in the digital era (McEnnis 2021) considering its capacity to apply new formats and storytelling techniques to enhance coverage. In this context, innovation in sports journalism is also about diversifying the agenda and making the most of digital platforms to go beyond mainstream and better compete for public attention with other peripheral actors (Rojas-Torrijos and Nölleke 2023). This is especially the case of Explore, the ‘media lab’ launched in 2013 and then redesigned and repositioned in 2021 as ‘the new platform of L’Équipe’s original content’. As part of an ambitious strategy that aims to reach new audiences through a premium business model, Explore has steadily diffused innovation in content and formats (Malmelin and Nivari-Lindström 2017) and reinvented itself to transcend the boundaries of traditional sports news coverage (Boyle and Haynes 2009). In light of such evolution, this research endeavours to understand the formats, output and practices deployed by Explore while evaluating its impact within L’Équipe’s broader offer. The study also aims to identify the main challenges that this innovative journalistic project faces. For these purposes, this study relies on a mixed-method approach that combines the performance of content analysis on the Explore website over a 32-month timeframe (May 2021 – December 2023), an ethnographic study and 8 semistructured interviews with Explore’s employees conducted during a visit to L’Équipe’s headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt in September 2022. Literature Review Sports journalism practice in a digital environment 3 Digital transformation has profoundly altered sports journalism practice, as it had to adjust itself to drastic changes in mobile and digital media technologies, journalistic routines, and relations with sources and audiences (Hutchins and Boyle 2017). In the wake of those changes, this field faces important challenges such as the emergence of non-traditional peripheral actors (Schapals 2022) in a increasing competitive field to reach and engage audiences, multi-platform convergence and cross-media production requirements (Erdal 2009; Lischka 2015; Wille and Schoch 2024), the social media rhythms and acceleration of workflows in newsrooms (Denisova 2023), and the growing editorial orientation to news metrics that may affect quality standards (Fürst 2020; Buzzelli et al. 2022). The 24-hour news cycle established in the digital ecosystem has provoked changes as to what is covered and how (McEnnis 2023) while sports journalists’ workloads have been increased (Daum and Scherer 2018). As Bradshaw and Minogue explain (2019, 3), “audiences' thirst for real-time updates, for on-demand content and for social-media driven visual material has fundamentally changed not only what sports journalists have to do but also the speed at which they have to do it”. Thus, sports journalists have to deal with new working conditions, as well as the diminished time between content production and distribution. Apart from similar pressures that journalism in general is facing, sport journalists are struggling with the need to defend their distinctiveness against new entrants in the field (Perreault and Ferrucci 2020) while making efforts to elevate their professional status (McEnnis 2021). But while other forms of sport-related media content such as team and player media as well as non-professional sports content producers have expanded (Perreault and Nölleke 2022), sports journalists lost exclusivity over their practices (McEnnis 2023) and became more dependent on sports clubs and organizations in-house media as sources and competitors (Sherwood and Nicholson 2017). These disruptive shifts in sports journalism practice were accelerated by the pandemic. Among those already-existing trends in this field, Velloso (2022, 2603) refers to “a reduction of access to players, owing partly to gatekeeping practices by team media management staff; an overreliance on official team sources; and a move towards emphasizing feature and analytics-focused pieces rather than game stories”. Despite “the ongoing erosion of the status and influence of sports journalists in the sports-media complex” (Daum and Scherer 2018, 558), professionals in this field endeavour to stand out over competitors and draw audience attention by producing and 4 increasingly “provocative, entertaining, and clickbait-oriented content” (Ramon and Tulloch 2021, 605) that is usually more opinionated than fact-based (Ferrucci 2022). In this context, many sports journalists see themselves as “marketers of their own work” (Birkner et al. 2023, 11), especially being more active on social media to promote the content they produce and generate traffic to the publication’s website. In this sense, sports journalists are required to use their social media handles more as a part of a campaign to increase the audience rather than as an editorial space (Seeger et al. 2023). Agenda diversity in sports journalism As McCombs and Valenzuela (2007, 48) explained, “the pattern of news coverage that defines the media’s agenda results from exchanges with sources that provide information for news stories, daily interactions among news organizations themselves, and journalism’s norms and traditions”. Consequently, the construction of the agenda depends on the relationship between journalists and sources (Souanef 2019), but also on their professional background and personal preferences, which may introduce some fundamental biases in the account of facts and events (Fuller 1996). Mainstream sports journalism has been noted for handling a scarce and repetitive number of sources and by the frequent uniformity presented by its stories (English 2018). As a result of this practice, this field has been long characterized by an overwhelming lack of diversity in the agenda, that involves not only similarity in approaches and formats but also an unequal coverage regarding sports, teams, and athletes. Indeed, three core areas of diversity imbalance in sports media can be clearly distinguished: mainstream disciplines and underrepresented sports, the long-standing minimization of sportswomen, and the discrimination against athletes with disabilities (Rojas-Torrijos and Ramon 2021). Such imbalances faced by sports journalism globally are also reflected in Frenchspeaking territories such as France, Belgium, and Switzerland and cannot be disassociated from external and internal factors impacting on sports journalism practice, including market forces, longstanding editorial priorities and dynamics, and segregation in the newsrooms (Guyot et al., 2024; Montañola et al. 2024; Schoch 2022; Souanef 2019). Marchand (2002, 171) contends that sports journalism should be based “on a diversified culture, a culture of all sports”. However, sports media seem to perpetuate the hegemonic coverage of major events and the most popular athletes (Andrews and Jackson 2001; Marchetti and Dargelos 2000). This is especially the case of football, the content 5 that overwhelmingly dominates the sports agenda leaving little space for other disciplines, tournaments, and voices (Horky and Nieland 2013) to be represented in the male-centered day-to-day coverage. The ‘footballization’ of sports journalism (Rojas-Torrijos 2012) leads to a considerable lack of diversity in the news coverage preventing most sports media outlets from tackling broader issues around competitions, exploring and cultivating niches, and serving communities of interest that remain neglected in the media (Domeneghetti 2021). This ‘narrowing effect’ of sports-related output has been reinforced in digital and social media platforms, where the topics published tend to be those that have been clicked on most by users (Seeger et al. 2023). Wille and Schoch (2024, 11) signal that sport and its coverage can only “be understood in the light of the historical, social, technical, political and economic contexts that run through it”. Despite this, sports journalism has historically been a field regarded as escapist and apolitical (Serazio 2019). In this insularity (Rowe 2007), reporters tend to avoid larger social issues and problematic areas in their coverage to be more focused on what happens inside sports venues instead of delivering more contextualized reporting (Antunovic and Bundon 2022). Nevertheless, this ‘stick to sports’ mandate that has governed sports journalism throughout decades (Broussard 2020) has been overtaken by the development of events in the news ecosystem. As with other niches of journalism, sports media needed to adjust to changes and had no choice but to quit from “an ideological safe space” (Moritz 2019, para 6) to better connect with an audience who is ever more aware of those sensitive social and political issues around competitions (Forde and Wilson 2018) such as inequality, racism, gender roles, environmental concerns, or sport governance (Diana 2024). For sports news outlets, leaving behind the 'stick to sports' mindset represents an opportunity to bring the audience closer to a complete understanding of what is happening and, thus, fulfil their professional mission (Bradshaw and Minogue 2019). As Wille (2013, 11) emphasizes, the focus on “contemporary societal concerns” and the orientation of “sports journalists towards a new form of social responsibility” should not be underscored. For sports media solving the abovementioned limitations and imbalances in the agenda constitutes an opportunity to diversify and expand their news coverage. This broader vision may lead them to explore formulas by using the lens of quality journalism and media innovation to gain relevance and distinctiveness against other content producers in the field, and thus pave the way to reach larger audiences. 6 Journalism innovation and media labs Digital transformation contributed to expanding spaces and innovative processes in news organizations (Rogers 2003) which needed to strategically respond to changes in the media landscape. As Storsul and Krumsvik (2013, 16) pointed out, media innovation is about change beyond the technological frame and may involve different degrees of novelty such as the development of platforms, the implementation of new business models or the exploration of ways to produce and present stories in a different manner. Many news organizations -mainly legacy outletslaunched their own innovation units or media labs as a solution to face changes caused by digital disruption. Labs can be defined as “units or departments dedicated to research, experimentation, development and implementation of technological and editorial innovations” (Salaverría 2015, 398). While these departments may adopt differing structures, profiles and workflows, they are mostly made up of multidisciplinary teams, having a certain degree of autonomy within the newsroom and working with agile methodologies (Herrera-Damas and Satizábal 2023). Whether an in-house hub or an independent innovation structure allied with some external third party, media labs manifest themselves as agents of journalistic innovation fuelled by an entrepreneurial vocation able to modify journalists’ mindset and newsroom culture (Mills and Wagemans 2021). Media labs expanded recently as a global phenomenon. In a report published by WAN-IFRA, Bisso-Nunes and Mills (2019) identified 123 initiatives of this type, although only 31% (39) of them corresponded to laboratories created by media outlets. To these labs we must also add the journalistic innovation structures launched by universities (46%, a total of 57), linked to research, experimentation and training, as well as other independent experiences launched by accelerators or companies. Most of these labs are located in Europe and North America and their implementation has been rapid and recent given that 67% were launched between 2011 and 2018. The core mission of media labs is the creation and implementation of innovations in editorial products, technologies or services that offer solutions to detected needs in the industry (García-Avilés 2021) thus reinforcing news organizations’ competitiveness and their brand reputation associated with the production of innovative outputs as a differentiating attribute. Although most media labs stood out for exploring new narratives and formats to produce attractive content for users, the truth is that these units advance innovation in its most cross-cutting sense (Carvajal et al. 2015; Bleyen et al. 2014). This broad approach includes solutions to reorganize work routines, improve content 7 distribution and increase consumption metrics (Bisso-Nunes and Mills 2021). Therefore, media labs are not just focused on creating new experiences for users but also carry out commercial and marketing actions as part of their business strategy (Mills and Wagemans 2021). More recently, a new generation of innovation labs has emerged and has benefited from the pioneering work of previous laboratories (Hogh-Janovsky and Meier 2021). As a result of this evolution, media labs have developed more specialist structures to expand innovation culture beyond newsrooms to media industry and society, and have consolidated hybrid teams to embrace the impact on innovation by non-journalistic professionals who have joined their newsrooms (González-Alba et al. 2023). Innovation in sports journalism practice As part of their function as spearheads of journalism innovation these media labs operate transversally across all desks within a newsroom. That said, some specialist areas like sports foster greater creativity (Malmelin and Virta 2016) and keep exploring new technologically-enhanced journalistic products (Koivula et al. 2020). Due to its spectacular nature, sports are a fertile ground for labs but also for data journalism or graphics and interactive departments in larger newsrooms. These creative units usually provide infographic, visual and explanatory support to relevant sports coverage such as that generated by mega-events, mainly Olympic Games and World Cups (Rojas-Torrijos 2020). The coverage of major sporting events represents a valuable opportunity for media outlets to further consolidate their innovative character after testing new ideas and solutions that have subsequently been emulated in other fields. Among such outstanding innovative findings, we can identify live blogs, a format first used by The Guardian in 1999 to cover football and cricket matches (Thurman and Walters 2012) and multimedia longform features, which redefined slow journalism practice by enhancing visual and immersive stories (Planer and Godulla 2021). In addition, sports journalism built new models of visualizations, analysis and predictions based on data methodology from specialist media such as Five Thirty Eight (Sports Business Journal 2015), and adjusted video formats to social media and mobile platform apps, such as the cutting-edge one developed by Bleacher Report, which provided fans news updates in real time and customized content about their favourite sports or teams (Eskenazi 2013). 8 Despite these achievements, innovation may be perceived as something occasional in many sports media outlets (McEnnis 2021), especially in those that normally work under budget and human capital constraints. Also, innovation requires the implementation of longer-term strategies within news organisations instead of embracing the high-speed pursuit of ‘bright, shiny things’ (Posetti 2018) that may undermine quality standards in sports journalism (Daum and Scherer 2018). Nevertheless, most sports media do not still contemplate innovation as an editorial and business priority (Ferrucci and Perreault 2021), even though such a strategic vision would help them gain distinctiveness and reinforce the legitimacy of professionalism against other content creators in the sports media complex (Perreault and Bell 2022). Sports journalism has already assumed innovation as a differential element in the digital era. Many sports newsrooms, even without having a lab itself, have adopted narrative solutions that boost quality content and adopted strategies to better reach audiences in the process of consolidating their business models. One of the clearest examples in this regard is Explore, the innovative platform launched by the sports French newspaper L'Équipe in 2013. Characterized by the intensive use of new formats at the service of quality journalism (Tulloch and Ramon 2017), Explore is currently a space devoted to the creation of original content that goes beyond the classic sports agenda and stands out as a central in L’Équipe’s strategy to attract new subscribers. Method This research endeavoured to examine l’Explore’s innovative proposition in terms of formats, output and practices while evaluating its impact within L’Équipe’s wider offer. The investigation was guided by the following questions: RQ1. Which is the repertoire of formats offered by Explore? Which formats work best from an audience perspective? RQ2. How diverse is the agenda provided by Explore? RQ3. Which are the distinctive journalistic practices and routines that characterize Explore’s work? In which ways do those differ from mainstream sports journalism? RQ4. Which is the impact of Explore within L’Équipe’s broader offer and what are the crucial challenges for the unit? To answer these questions, this study relied on a mixed-method approach. First, content analysis was performed on Explore’s website over a timeframe of 32 months (May 2021 – December 2023). Content analysis was defined by Berelson (1952, 18) as 9 “a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication”. We applied this technique to examine Explore’s website (https://www.lequipe.fr/explore/) and to gather numeric data to answer RQ1 and RQ2. The content analysis codebook included the following categories: (1) Date of publication of Explore’s content; (2) Formats employed; (3) Sport and/or topic covered by each publication; (4) Gender of protagonists; and (5) Additional observations (e.g.: the length of content in the case of video and audio products or number of episodes in the case of multimedia features). The unit of analysis was defined as each individual project (longform, documentary, podcast, or multimedia series) produced by Explore. Other content included in Explore’s website but not produced by the unit, such as “Enquêtes” (investigations), “Grands entretiens” (important interviews) and “Paroles d'ex” (anecdotes from former athletes), was excluded from the analysis. A total of 201 units of analysis were coded into a database created with Microsoft Excel and subsequently examined. Second, we employed different qualitative techniques to collect material to address all four research questions. At first, we conducted an in-depth online interview with Jérôme Cazadieu (L’Équipe’s editor) on 22 September 2021. The goal of this conversation, of 65 minutes in length, was to get acquainted with Explore’s approach, agenda, formats, and team composition. As a follow-up to this initial conversation, we arranged a visit to L’Équipe’s headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt, a municipality in the western suburbs of Paris, to conduct a newsroom ethnography and interviews with members of the team. Usher (2017, 369) highlights that newsroom ethnography “is one way to illuminate what content analyses and theoretical critiques alone do not tell us”. Ethnography allows researchers to investigate the phenomena “within its natural setting” (Värk and Kindsiko 2019, 309) while providing “invaluable insights into the nature and determinants of news production” (Cottle 2007, 1). According to Willig (2013, 373), “the strength of newsroom ethnographies, old as well as new, is their documentation and analyses of journalistic practice”. We visited the L'Équipe’s newsroom in September 2022. Located on the second floor of a building owned by the Amaury group in Boulogne-Billancourt, it is an area which hosts other media outlets such as Canal+, FranceTV and ARTE. Explore’s team occupies a small space –8-10 workspaces plus a meeting room– in the newsroom, which 16 Explore’s impact and crucial challenges (RQ4) To remain sustainable and preserve its editorial model, L’Équipe introduced premium content and different subscription options in 2016. At the time, the organization realized it could not sustain its activity with the traditional sales of newspapers, which were rapidly declining in France and elsewhere. Despite that Explore remained free access until April 2021, “it was complicated for it to remain free when premium content was expanding at L’Équipe” (Jérôme Cazadieu, interview, September 2021). As per data retrieved from the Amaury group website – updated in 2023–, L’Équipe has 352,000 subscribers (Amaury, n.d.), 98% of which come from France. According to Cazadieu, “Explore has become a weapon to capture new audiences” (interview, September 2022): Explore’s content is now the second highest driver for converting subscribers for L’Équipe, after the PDF from the ‘classic’ print newspaper. Those who joined due to Explore remain subscribed for 17 months on average, more than those who subscribe due to other offerings from L’Équipe, who stay for 14 to 15 months on average. Thus, Explore is punching above its weight: despite being produced by a small team, it holds an important capacity to attract and retain subscribers for its company. Explore has also opened the way for L’Équipe to think about how to commercialize its content across various markets. For instance, ‘L'Étoile de Tunisie’, on the tennis player Ons Jabeur has been bought by diverse media companies in the Maghreb countries. ‘Quinzaine de la Haine’, a video documentary focused on online harassment and attacks on tennis players secured 120 new subscribers for L’Équipe and has also been sold outside of France. Similarly, ‘Les Finisseurs’ has been sold in African markets, Belgium, and other European countries. Alongside the need to continue commercializing its content abroad, staff identified other crucial challenges for Explore in the years to come. While recognizing that “Explore is a small miracle because innovation comes from only a few people”, Imanol Corcostegui emphasized that their primary goal is “to keep innovating and going forward to surprise our readers”. Finding a balance involves following up on every type of existing format “to provide content closer to what our subscribers expect” (Martin Mounronval, interview, October 2022) while experimenting with new forms of storytelling, including hybrid formats that draw on fiction. To capitalize further on the power of video through a stronger “collaboration with the video team of L’Équipe” (Maxime Malécot, interview, September 2022) is also deemed as essential. 17 Both in terms of formats and content, developing special projects on the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics is considered an editorial priority. As Jean Baptiste Renet highlights, “this is the best moment and the best place to show what we are capable of”. In terms of audiences, Explore’s biggest challenges are to work further on the personalization of contents for the reader through various forms (emails, notifications, etc.) and find innovative ways of strengthening the connection with subscribers. So far, L’Équipe has already deployed creative routes to connect with readers, including meetings where they can interact with athletes and the editorial team. Meetings with top athletes such as Carl Lewis have not only reverted in new content for the website and social media but have also been instrumental for gaining and retaining subscribers. Finding new ways of connecting with publics in general and younger demographics in particular, is essential for Explore to continue growing its impact in a cluttered and competitive media landscape. Discussion and conclusion This research aimed to understand Explore’s proposition in terms of formats, output and practices while evaluating its impact within L’Équipe’s broader offer. The triangulation of content analysis, onsite observation and in-depth interviews with decision-makers and media practitioners allows us to determine that Explore constitutes a site for innovation. For L’Équipe, Explore fulfills the role of a Research and Development (R&D) unit, leading the way for the rest of the organization. For the industry as a whole, Explore arguably stands out as a leading ‘media lab’ (Hogh-Janovsky and Meier 2021; Mills and Wagemans 2021; Salaverría 2015) in the sports journalism field. Shifting away from the trend followed by other sports media outlets (Ferrucci and Perreault 2021), Explore conceives innovation both as an editorial and business priority. Through its lifespan, Explore has been driven by creative work and innovation in formats, content, practices and commercial strategies (Carvajal et al. 2015; Malmelin and Nivari-lindström 2017; Rogers 2003). Such solutions can inform other outlets while contributing to the broader discussion of how sports journalism practice can be reshaped in the digital age. In terms of formats, the platform has managed to reinvent itself and to react to shifts in sport media production and consumption (Hutchins et al. 2019; Lischka 2015; Wille and Schoch 2024) by combining longform features with a broader range of options, including video documentaries, multimedia series and podcasts (RQ1). Some of those formats are shorter, more cost-effective and have proven valuable to strengthen the 18 connection with subscribers. By continuously adapting to the changing media landscape and audiences’ habits (Pavlik 2021), Explore has been able to maintain its operation in contrast to other longform-based destinations such as Grantland or Sports Illustrated Longform (Tulloch and Ramon 2017). The employment of diverse formats confers on the reader unlimited margins for manoeuvre beyond lineal narratives, thus encouraging an alternative way to consume sports content. Focusing on the agenda, Explore occupies a unique position in digital sports journalism in terms of delivering cultural capital (Bourdieu 1998; Broussard 2020; English 2016). In contrast to the overwhelming uniformity and lack of diversity that has traditionally pervaded sports journalism (Marchetti and Dargelos, 2000; English 2018; Ramon and Rojas-Torrijos 2021), the range of sports, protagonists and distinctive angles covered by the platform should be highlighted (RQ2). Through its broad and distinctive agenda, Explore contributes to sustaining L’Équipe’s long tradition and appreciation for diversity while lending an additional space to topics that have been considered ‘blind spots’ (Morlandstø and Mathisen 2023) in standard sports reporting. By counteracting the ‘stick to sports’ approach that has characterized a great part of sports journalism output (Broussard 2020; Serazio 2019), Explore engages with a wide range of geopolitical, economic, cultural, and social issues (Diana 2024; Wille 2013; Wille and Schoch 2024) that help provide a greater understanding of sport. In contrast to the clickbait-driven approach and the fixation on audience data that pervades contemporary journalism practice (Buzzelli et al. 2022; Ramon and Tulloch 2021), the primary metric used by Explore constitutes an alternative approach into the field: the focus is on producing highquality and diverse content that translates into securing new subscribers. In terms of journalistic practices, Explore embodies alternative production modes that shift away from the ‘ASAP’ news culture (Bradshaw and Minogue 2019; Usher 2018). Explore’s strategy goes hand-in-hand with the defining postulates of digital slow journalism (Tulloch and Ramon 2017), capitalizing on ingredients such as creative freedom, a vested interest in context and analytic depth, technical experimentation and the rejection of speed and tight deadlines (RQ3). While not being a specific characteristic linked to slow journalism, the face-to-face teamwork culture exhibited by Explore is also important to note. Such culture demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic tremendously disrupted sports journalists’ routines (Velloso 2022) but, in the aftermath, it did not necessarily erode the importance of physical newsrooms as relevant spaces that shape “journalists’ work practices and identity” (Maares et al. 2023, 1611). 19 The study reveals that innovation in formats, output and practices has positively resonated with audiences. Explore was conceived as a site of ‘artisanship’, as an alternative destination that would help L’Équipe find new audiences and reach new territories. Over time, Explore has positioned itself as a central component within L’Équipe’s global offer: nowadays it is a platform capable of attracting and retaining subscribers who demand something else than ‘classic’ sports journalism (RQ4). Additionally, in a time of transnational flows in audiovisual content (Lotz and Eklund 2023), Explore has paved the way for the commercialization of content across various markets in Europe and beyond. Overall, Explore has become a cornerstone of the commercial strategy of the organization. The repertoire of strategies and practices deployed by Explore has profound implications for sports journalism practice in a changing scenario. While recognizing that each organization has its distinctive culture, staff and resources, both well-established and emerging outlets in other territories can benefit from the innovative approaches exhibited by Explore. Innovation in content and formats can help other organizations to stand out in an increasingly cluttered market (Perreault and Ferrucci 2020; Perreault and Nölleke 2022). For professionals, Explore’s production modes can pave the way for reconsidering the ‘default’ workloads and cycles in contemporary newsrooms. Considered altogether, findings signal that innovation can be a powerful asset to heighten the status of sports journalism and counteract the longstanding notions of it being the ‘toy department’ of the profession (McEnnis 2021). This case study should also recognize its limitations. Despite the fact that onsite observation at L’Équipe headquarters and interviews with Explore’s professionals provided a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the practices and strategies followed by the outlet, access was circumscribed to those opportunities provided by the organization. Future investigations would benefit from a longer observation period in the newsroom, including attendance at additional editorial meetings and periodic interviews with media practitioners. Alongside this, future research must continue examining Explore to trace its evolution. Arguably, it would be of particular interest to interrogate how Explore makes sense of the challenges already identified by the interviewed staff, such as the need to find new ways for creative storytelling and for strengthening the relationship with subscribers. 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