Jamie Mottram Leaves FanHouse for Yahoo! - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Just before the start of the 2006 season, Jamie Mottram sent e-mails to a few dozen people who wrote about football on the Internet, asking them to consider being a part of the massive blog that AOL Sports planned to launch, a blog that would feature scores of posts a day by a small army of writers.

The result was FanHouse, which launched a little over a year ago and which Mottram has overseen from the beginning. But Mottram told the FanHouse staff via e-mail Thursday night that he is leaving AOL and FanHouse.

Sports Business Daily reported today that Mottram will take a position with Yahoo! Sports as Senior Editor of Blogs & Community.

For Yahoo!, it's a great move. Mottram is smart, hard-working and well-connected within the sports blogosphere. Yahoo! has been acquiring much of the best talent from other sports media outlets, ranging from NFL writer Michael Silver (formerly of Sports Illustrated) to mixed martial arts editor Dave Doyle (formerly of Fox Sports). Mottram's hiring continues that trend.

However, the loss of Mottram won't change much at FanHouse, as John Ness, a Producer at AOL who has worked with FanHouse since January, will assume Mottram's duties. Ness says he foresees only minor incremental changes to sharpen the content at FanHouse.

Yahoo! Sports Executive Editor Dave Morgan told Sports Business Daily that Mottram's presence will help Yahoo! become more involved with "social media."

"We have an audience and community that is desperate to interact with each other, and we really haven't had a full platform to do that," Morgan said. "So having Jamie is a really important step in that direction for us."

Mottram explained his decision in an interview with The Big Lead.

I love FanHouse and would never leave for anything but a tremendous opportunity, and that opportunity is at Yahoo! Sports (I've already learned that the exclamation point is important). They want to increase their lead on ESPN by developing blogging and community components that none of the major sports sites have figured out yet, and they want me to quarterback that effort. It's a great fit.

Mottram will work from his home in Virginia, with regular trips to Yahoo!'s headquarters in Los Angeles. He said AOL's move from Dulles, Va., to New York City was not a factor in his decision. Mottram and his brother, Chris, will continue to run their personal blog, Mr. Irrelevant.