Per Twitter.
Grantland shut down by ESPN immediately
#2
Posted 30 October 2015 - 01:30 PM
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.
crimsontribe at twitter dot com
#3
Posted 30 October 2015 - 01:43 PM
Why?
#4
Posted 30 October 2015 - 01:44 PM
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.
There is baseball, and occasionally there are other things of note
"Now OPS sucks. Got it."
"Making his own olive brine is peak Mackus."
"I'm too hungover to watch a loss." - McNulty
@bopper33
#6
Posted 30 October 2015 - 01:46 PM
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.
#7
Posted 30 October 2015 - 02:26 PM
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.
#8
Posted 30 October 2015 - 02:45 PM
#9
Posted 30 October 2015 - 03:02 PM
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.
#10
Posted 30 October 2015 - 03:19 PM
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.
#11
Posted 30 October 2015 - 03:22 PM
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.
#12
Posted 30 October 2015 - 04:28 PM
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?
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.
#13
Posted 30 October 2015 - 04:45 PM
#14
Posted 30 October 2015 - 04:47 PM
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.
#15
Posted 30 October 2015 - 05:30 PM
This really does suck. Some of their podcasts were really good too.
The writing was on the wall though after Simmons left.
#16
Posted 30 October 2015 - 05:34 PM
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.
- DJ MC likes this
#17
Posted 30 October 2015 - 05:35 PM
#18
Posted 30 October 2015 - 06:45 PM
#19
Posted 30 October 2015 - 07:23 PM
You gotta get a real avatar and not just the purple pixels bro.
I prefer to keep an air of mystery about me.
- Icterus galbula likes this
#20
Posted 30 October 2015 - 07:26 PM
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.
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