81 replies to this topic

[Chris B]

Per Twitter.

[CrimsonTribe]

This is awful.  However, they have said that they are honoring the contracts of the writers and will use them elsewhere on ESPN.  It doesn't seem like they told the writers though from the tweets they've put out there.

[SportsGuy]

Why?  

[Pedro Cerrano]

Why?  

 

I'm guessing once Simmons left it didn't get the page hits needed to be sustainable.

 

Meh, I enjoyed a few things on there, but once BS left I only really read Zach Lowe.

[SportsGuy]

https://www.washingt...ve-immediately/

[SportsGuy]

They had a lot of informative articles...Thought most was better than Simmons' crap.

 

Oh well.

 

Nate Silver's site probably has something to do with it as well.  

[BSLChrisStoner]

It didn't get much traffic when Simmons was there. It was a noble project, but a vanity project...  without Simmons the quality didn't really change, but they were missing their captain. Simmons served as the advocate for the project to his superiors at ESPN. They wanted to reward / showcase him... without him, their desire to keep the project going was probably eliminated.

 

I think the real bottomline is that the ESPN brass likely realized that Grantland talent would be trickling out the door to follow Simmons. Rather than watch the quality of the site decline, easier to just eliminate it.

 

ESPN has been making cuts to their staff as a whole. They were bloated, and probably had a realization that they can continue to dominate the marketplace with less contributors...  (how this directly relates, I'm not sure... since they are saying they are going to find homes for the existing contributors... but I'm sure it's related overall.)

 

If you value quality, the end of Grantland is sad.

[Icterus galbula]

Over the last year I read less than I used to, but this still sucks. Some top notch writers they had.

[Don Quixote]

Damn. I had high hopes when it debuted. Over time, I read less, but that was just part of my decreasing focus on sports as other things have taken up more of my time.

[BSLMikeLowe]

ESPN has been slashing costs for months now. The pinch of cord-cutting is being felt everywhere. I sure hope someone out there decides the work the Grantland staff did was worth replicating somewhere. That said, long-form journalism like that, as engaging as it is, seems to be a money-loser.

[BSLMikeLowe]

They had a lot of informative articles...Thought most was better than Simmons' crap.

 

Oh well.

 

Nate Silver's site probably has something to do with it as well.  

 

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if that's next on the chopping block.

[DJ MC]

Ken Tremendous ‏@KenTremendous  3h3 hours ago

Ken Tremendous Retweeted Skip Bayless

Grantland got shut down today.

Ken Tremendous added,

 

Skip Bayless @RealSkipBayless I KNOW what Tebow can do in the NFL. I've seen it over/over/over. I'm not sure what Andrew Luck can do or if he has

 

Ken TremendousVerified account‏@KenTremendous

Ken Tremendous Retweeted Stephen A Smith

Grantland was shut down today.

Ken Tremendous added,

 

 

Stephen A Smith @stephenasmith I completely support Jerry Jones & the @dallascowboys having Hardy on the team. What side are you on?
 

 

 

 

Just remember that despite ESPN cutting costs, these two, and all the others like them at the network (each making a LOT of money), are going nowhere.

 

People don't really care about the kind of writing Grantland was doing, and they didn't want to do any of the gimmicks that draw clicks. The site needed Simmons to be the draw while the rest of the writers developed around him. The real proof of how ESPN viewed Grantland is the fact that, despite multiple public problems with Simmons over the years and his contract coming up for renewal, they never prepared any kind of succession plan for the site. They just threw Connolly out there as a stop-gap until they could figure out how to close things down.

[NewMarketSean]

Yeah this sucks. I'd check in daily, read an article or five weekly. As pretentious as he could be, I liked Wesley Morris' movie reviews but at least now I'm spared the assholey Charles B. Pierce, who I swear was RShack in another life.

[DJ MC]

Yeah this sucks. I'd check in daily, read an article or five weekly. As pretentious as he could be, I liked Wesley Morris' movie reviews but at least now I'm spared the assholey Charles B. Pierce, who I swear was RShack in another life.

 

Another?

 

Here's some new info:

 

Deadspin: How Grantland Died

 

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.

 

That is quite the dick move--risking all those jobs over this vendetta--but neither side has looked very good in how things went down.

[SBTarheel]

This really does suck. Some of their podcasts were really good too. 

 

The writing was on the wall though after Simmons left. 

[Icterus galbula]

Another?
 
Here's some new info:
 
Deadspin: How Grantland Died
 

 
That is quite the dick move--risking all those jobs over this vendetta--but neither side has looked very good in how things went down.

You gotta get a real avatar and not just the purple pixels bro.

[Icterus galbula]

Also, I don't think the "without notice" thing has much to do with why they canned the site.

[NewMarketSean]

Simmons strikes me as a drama queen. I mean he's from NE so that's to be expected.

[DJ MC]

You gotta get a real avatar and not just the purple pixels bro.

 

I prefer to keep an air of mystery about me.

[DJ MC]

Also, I don't think the "without notice" thing has much to do with why they canned the site.

 

Oh, not directly, of course. But I can see it hastening things along. Editors already tend to be overworked and underpaid, so throw the work of four more on those remaining, all at once, and things will go to hell very quickly.