Grantland might be done by 2016
- Thread starter Jmare007
- Start date
Absolut
Legal Bookie
exactly. feels like when a celebrity dies and everyone suddenly acts like they give a shyt. the site was around doing absolutely zero for years and years. a very, very smal, percentage of people read it, and an even smaller percentage read it avidly. with the budget cuts all over the board i cant believe its lasted this long over there. a lot of these stay at home sports bloggers dont have the market value they thought they did. thats called reality. not many people really give a shyt about your long form thoughts anymoreTwitter is full of people sad about Grantland but those same people didn't bother to go to the site or it would probably still be there
How Grantland Died
Greg Howard:
ESPN killed Grantland today. There were hints that this would happen, starting with the departure of Grantland founder Bill Simmons in May. This summer, news broke that ESPN would be making enormous budget cuts over the next two years. Last month, Grantland suffered a crippling blow when four top editors—Sean Fennessey, Juliet Litman, Mallory Rubin, and Chris Ryan—left on the same day to join Simmons at a still-unannounced project, and Dan Fierman, Grantland’s editorial director, went to MTV. When Deadspin reached out to ESPN last week to ask if Grantland was being shuttered, a spokesman declined comment. Today it became official. The 40-odd remaining writers and editors at the sports and culture website found out virtually when everyone else did.
This morning, interim editor-in-chief Chris Connelly told his staff that there was a mandatory conference call at 1:50 p.m. Some writers were out on assignment; one was even at an airport. Once everyone called in, Connelly broke the news. According to Buzzfeed, he started off by letting the staff know that “ESPN has decided to direct its time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across its enterprise” before congratulating them for all the great work they’d done.
John Walsh, the longtime ESPN executive editor often credited with launching Simmons’s career and helping to birth Grantland, says he’s less surprised that the axe fell than by the timing. “Oh, wow,” Walsh, who retired earlier this year, said upon getting the news. He let on that he “had some sense that this could happen” after taking some time to collect his thoughts on the death of his protege’s brainchild.
“I didn’t know it would be now,” he said. “This was Bill’s vision and Bill’s baby and these were Bill’s hires, and he’s brilliant. I’m sad that it’s ending, just like the rest of the people who are concerned with the literate sports word world. It’s a loss.”
In retrospect, the editorial exodus looks to have been more or less the end. One Grantlander says that no one knew the four editors were leaving to join Simmons until the day they left. That’s because, another source says, Simmons has been warring with ESPN both by acting as a source for writer Jim Miller, and by more nefarious means.
While Grantland writers are on contract, editors are at-will. The four editors’ exits were coordinated, and Simmons, according to this source, told the editors who jumped ship with him that a condition of their employment was that they couldn’t warn anyone at ESPN they were leaving, in order to hit the site as hard as possible.
“He put his beef with [ESPN president John] Skipper above the jobs of dozens of people,” one Grantland staffer said.
It’s still up in the air what will happen to all of the staffers. ESPN says it will honor its contracts. Grantland’s sportswriters are expected to be brought over to ESPN.com. As one senior ESPN source told CNN, “We’re getting out of the pop culture business.”
Greg Howard:
ESPN killed Grantland today. There were hints that this would happen, starting with the departure of Grantland founder Bill Simmons in May. This summer, news broke that ESPN would be making enormous budget cuts over the next two years. Last month, Grantland suffered a crippling blow when four top editors—Sean Fennessey, Juliet Litman, Mallory Rubin, and Chris Ryan—left on the same day to join Simmons at a still-unannounced project, and Dan Fierman, Grantland’s editorial director, went to MTV. When Deadspin reached out to ESPN last week to ask if Grantland was being shuttered, a spokesman declined comment. Today it became official. The 40-odd remaining writers and editors at the sports and culture website found out virtually when everyone else did.
This morning, interim editor-in-chief Chris Connelly told his staff that there was a mandatory conference call at 1:50 p.m. Some writers were out on assignment; one was even at an airport. Once everyone called in, Connelly broke the news. According to Buzzfeed, he started off by letting the staff know that “ESPN has decided to direct its time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across its enterprise” before congratulating them for all the great work they’d done.
John Walsh, the longtime ESPN executive editor often credited with launching Simmons’s career and helping to birth Grantland, says he’s less surprised that the axe fell than by the timing. “Oh, wow,” Walsh, who retired earlier this year, said upon getting the news. He let on that he “had some sense that this could happen” after taking some time to collect his thoughts on the death of his protege’s brainchild.
“I didn’t know it would be now,” he said. “This was Bill’s vision and Bill’s baby and these were Bill’s hires, and he’s brilliant. I’m sad that it’s ending, just like the rest of the people who are concerned with the literate sports word world. It’s a loss.”
In retrospect, the editorial exodus looks to have been more or less the end. One Grantlander says that no one knew the four editors were leaving to join Simmons until the day they left. That’s because, another source says, Simmons has been warring with ESPN both by acting as a source for writer Jim Miller, and by more nefarious means.
While Grantland writers are on contract, editors are at-will. The four editors’ exits were coordinated, and Simmons, according to this source, told the editors who jumped ship with him that a condition of their employment was that they couldn’t warn anyone at ESPN they were leaving, in order to hit the site as hard as possible.
“He put his beef with [ESPN president John] Skipper above the jobs of dozens of people,” one Grantland staffer said.
It’s still up in the air what will happen to all of the staffers. ESPN says it will honor its contracts. Grantland’s sportswriters are expected to be brought over to ESPN.com. As one senior ESPN source told CNN, “We’re getting out of the pop culture business.”
regardless if the numbers justified it, Grantland was consistently producing the best content for ESPN
you'd like to see a company that basically monopolizes sports media to be able to take those hits and continue to produce high level content
ESPN has become
outside sports broadcasting
you'd like to see a company that basically monopolizes sports media to be able to take those hits and continue to produce high level content
ESPN has become
outside sports broadcasting
NYC Rebel
...on the otherside of the pond
Pretty much. It's the fans own fault for being nothing more than headline readers now fronting as if they give page clicks to long form, critical thinking pieces.
I'm wondering if anyone will pick up on this point. ESPN seems to be getting most of the blame for this but Simmons deserves some blame if not most of it for the end of Grantland...Simmons deserves blame for ESPN likely de-valuing him and basically forcing him out the door?
Mike Otherz
All Star
i never ever liked bill simmons. remember when he was rude to that black female TV host? fukk that dude. he was smarmy, never funny, but his black writers like wesley and rembert would laugh at his corny jokes like he was richard pryor. his writers were dope for the most part, but that easy when espn give you money to throw around. sad for the writers but that dude bill, never liked him at all. and to find out he was tryna sabotage. and sean fennesy, remmeber that cornbalk form his Vibe years, never liked his smug ass either. the editors just rubbed me the wrong way.
Absolut
Legal Bookie
exactly. only time i really ever read anything on there was when it was posted here in a thread or something, or checked out the occasional podcast as i was going to bed or something. i dont think i ever actually went to the site on my own. theres just too many places to get fairly informed sports insights anymore. and the casual fan, forget about it. thats who the clay travises, and the colin cowherds, and the skip baylesses, the a$$hole at the big lead etc try to target, because they are the types of fans who bring the pageviews. too many people with ADD and move on to the next in the moment topic to be trying to build a website around premium, longform contentPretty much. It's the fans own fault for being nothing more than headline readers now fronting as if they give page clicks to long form, critical thinking pieces.
How is being the highest paid dude at the Network de-valuing him?
because they wanted him to take a pay cut
ESPN pushed him out the door, this is not worth going back & forth about
GoddamnyamanProf
Countdown to Armageddon
It doesnt matter if it didnt get idiots clicking on it. That wasnt the purpose of Grantland.
Yeah its not worth going back and forth plus it has nothing to do with him working behind the scenes trying to kill Grantland. He didn't seem to care about anybody still working at Grantland since he wanted to kill it