My inbox has just been flooded with copies of a landmark announcement–the Sporting News has let its players know that it will no longer provide fantasy games to its readers. In an email from the Sporting News’ President and Publisher Jeff Price, he writes:

Dear Valued Fantasy Games Player,

Due to a shift in our core business strategy, SportingNews.com will no longer offer new fantasy games going forward (excluding Strat-O-Matic). The fantasy industry is changing, and we feel it’s best to devote our resources to providing the best fantasy content and advice on the internet, and beyond. We believe SportingNews.com’s fantasy content, tools and advice are already best in class, and over the next few months, we will completely redesign the Fantasy Source section of our site to deliver a new and improved user experience. With this shift in strategy, we will dedicate our entire fantasy staff to building Fantasy Source into the number one destination for fantasy information, accessible via internet, mobile devices, and other new technologies.

…

This is huge news! During the 1990s, the Sporting News was a major source of information, and hosted its own very successful games which were powered by CDM Sports (now Fanball). In recent years, it has fallen off the fantasy radar as fantasy players have flocked to sites offering free fantasy games with lots of bells and whistles. Holding on to its fantasy business for purely nostalgic reasons just does not make good business sense. It does plan to continue producing fantasy content via the Fantasy Source.

The Sporting News has been aggressively changing its business model over the last few years as the need (or demand) for a weekly sports magazine has dissipated over the last few years. Last month the Sporting News announced that its Sporting News Today product would switch to a subscription model starting in April. The Sporting News is focusing on making sure that as the sports information industry evolves, it is ready and profitable.

Also a loser in this announcement is also RotoHog, who just last June announced that RotoHog would be providing the fantasy games for the Sporting News. RotoHog, who is fully focused on white-label games currently, will definitely miss the cachet and doors that running the Sporting News’ fantasy games might open. After all, the Sporting News is still a very recognizable and trusted brand in fantasy sports.

The winner in all of this is CBSSports.com. Later in the email Price recommends that Sporting News users looking for fantasy baseball to sign up for CBSSports.com’s fantasy baseball commissioner at a nearly 50% discount.

It is sad to seem these change in the industry. I applaud Jeff Price on being able to make a decision that was definitely not an easy decision for him to make.

Thanks to everyone who let me know about this in a very timely manner.

I love contests. Especially the kind of contests where it is free to enter, and if you win, you get something of value. The Sporting News is hosting a contest to find burning questions for its 2010 Fantasy Baseball Yearbook. To win a free fantasy yearbook, all you have to do is email a question to which you are dying to know. That simple.

While most fantasy baseball fans have checked out mentally until spring training, there are still thousands of fantasy players who are already contemplating what will the 2010 fantasy baseball bring. Those are the fantasy baseball players who are wondering what fantasy baseball position changes will occur. For some fantasy players, there is No Offseason.

Even though the contest may be out season, I love it. Contests like this are usually pretty cheap, likely to get attention, and help you interact with your users.

If the Sporting News selects your burning question, you will receive a free copy of the 2010 Fantasy Baseball Yearbook. To enter, email your questions to dailymail_bb@sportingnews.com and be sure to include your address. The deadline for entries is Nov. 7.