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Five of the top 10 neighbors are sports journalists — Pat Forde (0.84), Dan Wetzel (0.83), Jeff Goodman (0.83), Scott Van Pelt (0.81), and Pete Thamel (0.79) — making the journalist subcategory the dominant structural feature of USA TODAY Sports' audience shape.
The shape is broad, with scores spanning from 0.84 down to 0.79 across the top 10 and no single neighbor pulling sharply ahead of the rest. Beyond the journalist cluster, 30 For 30 (0.83) is the highest-scoring non-journalist neighbor, a TV Show, followed by Trae Crowder (0.80), a Comedian — two cross-kind entries that sit comfortably inside the top six. The Athletic CBB (0.80) and Sporting News (0.79) are the only other News Publishers in the top 10, meaning USA TODAY Sports' own subcategory accounts for just two of the ten slots. Roger Goodell (0.80), classified as a Professional, rounds out the set.
The cross-kind composition — journalists, a documentary series, a comedian, a sports executive, and two fellow publishers — points to an audience whose shape is defined less by loyalty to a single media format than by broad engagement with sports-adjacent content across formats and personalities.
