ESPN’s City-by-City Plan: Newspapers vs. blogs? Ha! Try newspaper sports sections vs. ESPN local. ” … after a promising test run in Chicago, ESPN is adding local offshoots to three more cities. On Monday, ESPN … plans to announce local Web sites in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas — in what executives say is only the ‘first inning’ of their effort to provide hyperlocal sports coverage in cities across the country.” The story goes on to say ESPNChicago.com already has a large readership than the Chicago Tribune’s sports section. While papers are wasting their time focusing on how to battle blogs, and coming up with creative ways to charge for content, ESPN sneaks in the backdoor and slowly begins to siphon ad dollars and readers from the local product. [NYT]