Alison

Overholt

ESPN

Senior Vice President, Multiplatform Storytelling & Journalism, ESPN

 

Alison Overholt is Senior Vice President, Multiplatform Storytelling and Journalism. She was promoted in March 2020 which expanded her role to include oversight of all ESPN’s storytelling efforts including brands like E:60, The Daily Podcast, Cover Story and the digital storytelling group. Previously Overholt was Vice President, Storytelling & Special Projects where she was responsible for developing comprehensive content strategies and for driving collaborative, innovative approaches to storytelling, with oversight of producing ESPN’s multiplatform enterprise content. Overholt became the first female editor-in-chief of a national, general-interest sports magazine when she took over the helm of ESPN The Magazine in 2016. In December 2017, she added oversight of all of ESPN.com’s long-form content, and in 2018, she became the lead ESPN executive for The ESPYS. Since joining as espnW’s editor-in-chief in 2014, Overholt has overseen the transformation of espnW.com and espnW’s significant rising influence across ESPN’s platforms and beyond the network. Overholt added oversight of ESPN The Magazine in 2016 and under her guidance the magazine received the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the “news, sports, and entertainment” category by the American Society of Magazine Editors, and was named the top magazine of 2016 in terms of brand audience reach according to the Association of Magazine Media. Overholt first joined ESPN in 2005 as general editor, sports business and lifestyle for ESPN The Magazine. In 2007, she was elevated to senior editor, special projects, ESPN The Magazine, overseeing its enterprise and investigative team, as well as managing the publication’s Olympics and X Games coverage. In 2009, Overholt was part of ESPN’s early efforts to research and develop a sports media offering for women and was espnW’s founding editor. Overholt departed ESPN in 2010 to found her own digital content strategy company. She returned to ESPN in 2014. In 2018, Overholt was named a Top Woman in Digital by Cynopsis in the “Game Changers” category. She was also named one of AdWeek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports in consecutive years (2017 and 2016). In 2017, Folio honored her as one of its “Top Women in Media,” a recognition she also earned in 2016, and was named to the 2016 “Folio 100.” She was also honored by the NYC Metro Chapter of WISE (Women in Sports and Events) in 2016 as a Woman of Inspiration, and in 2015, she was named a “Game Changer” by Sports Business Journal and one of the “Top Women in Digital” by Cynopsis. As an editor, Overholt oversaw stories that earned the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award (2007) and both magazine and internet category wins from the New York Press Club Awards for Journalism (2010). Overholt was a member of the ASME National Magazine Award-winning team for General Excellence at ESPN The Magazine in 2006. In 2005, she received the AAJA National Print Journalism Award for her writing in Fast Company. Overholt began her career as a writer and editor at Fast Company magazine and her writing has appeared in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, Working Mother, Cosmopolitan, Inc., Sports Illustrated: Women and Fitness. Born in New York State, Overholt spent her childhood in Hong Kong. She is a former high school basketball player and an avid runner, having finished the Honolulu Marathon in 2003 and the New York City Marathon in 2013, with several half marathons between and since. She graduated with honors from Harvard University with an A.B. in government.

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