ESPN Terminates Grantland

[raduray]

I doubt it will be for long, and more importantly it's not very good IMO. They just can't produce enough quality content to sustain a semi-standalone site. And I say that as someone who loves pretty much everything Nate Silver writes.

I agree. Only question in my mind is, does ESPN keep 538 thru the '16 Elections ,or will it be gone before then.

 

[PP2]

This article was eerily right on point:

Bill Simmons's Grantland Is Doomed Even Before Launch

But Simmons will lose this battle -- the rebellious teenager still relies too heavily on its parents for support -- and ESPN will drive this site into the ground. It's only a matter of time before he leaves.

 

[denverpatsfan]

I listened to the Barnwell/Mays NFL podcasts every week. BSPN sucks.

 

[Deus Irae]

A forward thinking mega-company could take all the talent from Grantland and 538, and, by laying that talent on top of a basic sports news site rather than making it a 'spinoff' type of site, turn it into something that could really rival ESPN.com.

 

[The Brandon Five]

A forward thinking mega-company could take all the talent from Grantland and 538, and, by laying that talent on top of a basic sports news site rather than making it a 'spinoff' type of site, turn it into something that could really rival ESPN.com.

I think ESPN is about as far away from that as you can be.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Reports are that all Grantland staffers will have their contracts honored and will be moved to other pieces of ESPN.

 

[Froob]

Reports are that all Grantland staffers will have their contracts honored and will be moved to other pieces of ESPN.

Perhaps the propaganda department could use some creative writing?

 

[Tony2046]

and Mort the Rotten Lying Scumbag is an entire toxic waste dump.

You have such an eloquent yet gentle touch with your criticisms.

 

[Fencer]

Collection of articles about the news -- ESPN suspends publication of Grantland, effective immediately

 

[jays52]

Nice, Grantland was the last reason to go to any of the ESPN family of websites. Hopefully Barnwell, Mays, Lowe, etc. will jump **** and catch on with Simmons' TBA HBO site.

None of this was surprising really, rather it was pretty much to be expected. ESPN's racing to the bottom on content quality. If that wasn't apparent before, it became apparent in how they covered Deflategate and Lamar Odom's coma. It's all low-effort ****posting of lists and gifs from here on out.

I guess is what we get when we're not willing to pay for content.

The first evidence of the strategy was First Take- that was the proverbial toe dip. They're borrowing heavily from the CBS primetime model of appealing to the lowest common denominator and spamming cheap, derivative content. I completely agree that subscription is going to be the driver for premium OTT content. I also believe that there is going to be a threshold established very soon for subscription channels (apps)...and YouTube Red very well may be the catalyst for it. It seems pretty clear to me that ESPN is leveraging their name to become a distribution channel and is slashing their costs while finding a way to keep their traffic high which results in ****posts.

Quality branded content is highly effective, but it's also highly expensive. The sales cycles are long, the talent recruitment is hard, broadcast quality cameras are cheap, Premiere CC is $30/mo, and there is constant disruption from passionate kids self-educated from youtube tutorials uploading from laptops. It is extremely hard to consistently compete on quality when you are big in the current market. ESPN is positioning themselves to be a pay for play network for their large non-endemic ad partners who are absorbing studios left and right. Until they are able to devise a strong OTT content revenue strategy ESPN is going to be a quagmire of ********. Hopefully it kills them.

 

[BradyFTW!]

A forward thinking mega-company could take all the talent from Grantland and 538, and, by laying that talent on top of a basic sports news site rather than making it a 'spinoff' type of site, turn it into something that could really rival ESPN.com.

If anyone at Fox Sports has an ounce of intelligence, they're working the phones *hard* right now trying to do exactly this.

 

[ViperGTS]

If anyone at Fox Sports has an ounce of intelligence, they're working the phones *hard* right now trying to do exactly this.

Screw Fox. While a good idea, not what would work. Something like those players specific websites. That would work pretty damn good.

 

[I.M. Fletcher]

Being able to create Grantland out of thin air has to be one of the rarest accomplishments in journalism over recent history. It was very much held in the same breathe as Vanity fair or Rolling Stone, which may not mean much to some, but that is serious cache for any unknown writer to attach his/her name to. As much as I loathe everything ESPN is about as an organization, this is easily the most loathesome act in my eyes. Grantland had major voices in every venue of sports, from Barnwell, Zach Lowe, Rembert, McIndoe and Keri, all relative unknowns who found a very significant voice and following because of Grantland. That is not even touching on the entertainment side, which had equal talent and varying eyes on the world.

The internet needs more Grantlands, not less, and for it to get scraped because Simmons scorched management is a huge indictment on that management.

 

[Deus Irae]

If anyone at Fox Sports has an ounce of intelligence, they're working the phones *hard* right now trying to do exactly this.

While I don't disagree with you, nothing I've seen from Fox Sports tells me that they are interested in competing with ESPN. And that's too bad, because their FoxSportsOne could sure as hell use the boost.

 

[Fencer]

Exclusive: ESPN President John Skipper on His Decision to Shutter Grantland

ESPN head gives an interview to Vanity Fair about the end of Grantland.