The Study On The Development Of Sports Public Relations In The Process Of Media Convergence

With the prosperity of sports industry nowadays, sports organizations, as the provider of core sport products, have emerged as an undeniable force in the market. Meanwhile, sports marketing has experienced a paradigm shift:from transactional marketing to relationship marketing.This paper mainly focuses on the sports organizations’ public relations network, using sports public relations theories and relationship marketing theories. First, it analyses the different parts within the network and summarizes the characteristics of sports public relations network in traditional media age. Then it deals with the influences media convergence has on the network specifically and takes Manchester United as a case study, analyzing the components of its public relations network and the interactions within it in details.In the end, it identifies the four major changes that the sports public relations network has had after the media convergence:the interaction within sports public relations on daily basis; the multi-media platform owned by sports organizations; the implementation of fan-focused CRM; the changed way in which sports core products are made.Hopefully, the findings in this study can contribute to the development of sports organizations’ public relations practice in China in the context of media convergence.