The Rise and Fall of ESPN’s Leverage
https://stratechery....espns-leverage/
Posted 11 September 2023 - 02:18 PM
Posted 27 November 2023 - 10:00 PM
I'm old enough to remember when one of the highlights of my week was when the latest Sports Illustrated arrived in the mailbox. Sad to see how far they have sunk, but this is a whole other level of pathetic.
Futurism: Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI Generated Writers
Posted 28 November 2023 - 01:14 AM
Points for the first journalist on this website who writes an article about the plight of the employees of the O's store who want to retain their hourly wage and healthcare.
Posted 28 November 2023 - 06:32 AM
Points for the first journalist on this website who writes an article about the plight of the employees of the O's store who want to retain their hourly wage and healthcare.
Posted 12 December 2023 - 01:46 PM
Al Michaels won't be working the NFL playoffs for NBC.
Posted 12 December 2023 - 02:55 PM
I'm old enough to remember when one of the highlights of my week was when the latest Sports Illustrated arrived in the mailbox. Sad to see how far they have sunk, but this is a whole other level of pathetic.
Futurism: Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI Generated Writers
Particularly when the swimsuit issue was due to arrive. I had to try and get to the mailbox before my mother so she wouldn't throw it away. She thought they were sending me porn.
Haven't subscribed in a long time. I used to love the longer articles on some long-ago sports figure or sports event, but that type of writing today is about as fashionable as Nehru jackets. If not for SI, I wouldn't have learned who Hobey Baker was.
Posted 18 December 2023 - 02:52 PM
Big news....in my world at least. After 17 years at Sports Business Journal, noted Terps and O's fan John Ourand is leaving to go to Puck News, a newsletter-based startup.
https://puck.news/jo...tm_campaign=TW1
Posted 05 January 2024 - 05:37 PM
Posted 05 January 2024 - 08:26 PM
That was inevitable. ESPN learned nothing from their Bill Simmons experience.
Posted 05 January 2024 - 10:38 PM
That was inevitable. ESPN learned nothing from their Bill Simmons experience.
Posted 05 January 2024 - 10:49 PM
I don't know anything about Pat's complaint other than what Chris posted, so maybe I'm missing something, but I'm curious about the link you're making if you care to expand.
I feel like there's a parallel between the two. They're both popular, very outspoken personalities that appeal to a demographic that ESPN desperately wants....so they open the vault to hire them on, and then everyone is seemingly shocked when those personalities go after ESPN's most valued partners (or in McAfee's case Disney), and eventually turn on ESPN itself (and not unjustified IMO).
I'm not sure how long McAfee's contract is for, or what the termination clauses might be, but I would not be at all shocked if they part ways before his contract is up. IIRC Simmons just didn't have his contract renewed. But in both cases it seems like ESPN hired someone who they knew would eventually bite them in the ass just to make money off them while they could.
Posted 05 January 2024 - 10:55 PM
Posted 05 January 2024 - 11:02 PM
I feel like there's a parallel between the two. They're both popular, very outspoken personalities that appeal to a demographic that ESPN desperately wants....so they open the vault to hire them on, and then everyone is seemingly shocked when those personalities go after ESPN's most valued partners (or in McAfee's case Disney), and eventually turn on ESPN itself (and not unjustified IMO).
I'm not sure how long McAfee's contract is for, or what the termination clauses might be, but I would not be at all shocked if they part ways before his contract is up. IIRC Simmons just didn't have his contract renewed. But in both cases it seems like ESPN hired someone who they knew would eventually bite them in the ass just to make money off them while they could.
Posted 05 January 2024 - 11:22 PM
Alright.
I think some differences are that Simmons' worked for ESPN for a decade or so before having issues and I don't think he's an especially outspoken sports media personality in general, he just had some issues (commonly held) with the commissioner of ESPN's biggest partner.
If you want another parallel, there’s ESPN’s ill-fated experiment with Rush Limbaugh on NFL Countdown. Limbaugh never went after ESPN directly, but who didn’t know the moment the pairing was announced that it was doomed to failure.
Posted 06 January 2024 - 02:28 AM
Posted 06 January 2024 - 04:39 AM
That was inevitable. ESPN learned nothing from their Bill Simmons experience.
Posted 06 January 2024 - 06:01 AM
Apparently the guy McAfee called out is a huge dickhead
Posted 06 January 2024 - 11:16 AM
If you want another parallel, there’s ESPN’s ill-fated experiment with Rush Limbaugh on NFL Countdown. Limbaugh never went after ESPN directly, but who didn’t know the moment the pairing was announced that it was doomed to failure.
Posted 06 January 2024 - 11:19 AM
McAffee is unbearable.
Posted 06 January 2024 - 11:36 AM
Are you sure you don’t mean Barstool instead of Simmons? They gave the Barstool guys a show and pulled the plug in 2 days. McAfee is a Barstool descendant. Which equals giant douche. and as you said, inevitable, something controversial would happen.
Oh yeah, forgot about Barstool. ESPN sure does make themselves look clueless sometimes. It'd be one thing if they were going all-in on the douchey content and the audience it brings, but they clearly aren't....so why keep bringing these guys in?
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