Bill Simmons Leaving ESPN

[gourimoko]

Amen Jack. Took the words out of my mouth. Simmons needed ESPN's capital because couldn't have launched the Grantland universe as successfully on his lonesome. Bill definitely needed ESPN to finance and launch the Grantland digital universe. In an ironic twist, this is exactly what happened to Sonny Vaccaro. Great Grantland piece, as well as Ibaka's "son of the congo." Check em out.

Guys... again.. the bolded is false.

He did not need ESPN to start Grantland. He could've driven 2.5M clickthroughs / 30 days by negotiating various deals with other outlets, organically, through social media, and through paid-advertising (from investments). Yes there would be substantial costs, but much of those costs could be offset, and the remaining portion could be paid by investors.

He did not need ESPN to own Grantland outright simply to drive traffic and pay production costs.

He'd have been better off starting smaller, and growing organically, rather than ending up 4 years later without ownership or control over what he's built.

I say this from expertise - growing these types of businesses online is what I do for a living. I do this every single day. Not from a marketing standpoint, but from a development and analytics standpoint.

Grantland isn't as big as some folks here think.. The amount of traffic they are getting could be replicated without the need for millions of dollars of investment from ESPN.

 

[gourimoko]

Wait...has Simmons been fired? ESPN's statement seemed to imply they'd part ways when his contract expired.

At the end of the contract, rather than moving forward, ESPN simply was not interested.

Simmons was "seemingly" fired.

 

[Mr. Orange]

I think Simmons and Yahoo would be an interesting marriage. Yahoo needs to stay hip. Simmons needs a job.

 

[gourimoko]

I doubt Bill readily ceded ownership of Grantland to ESPN at it's inception.

If it was going to be backed by ESPN, use ESPN resources and capital, and be marketed by ESPN to get off the ground, Bill would have a tough time making the case in a contract negotiation that he should have majority ownership. He's not the one paying the writers, site operation, advertising, etc. Simmons didn't even have final say in Grantland matters. He was operating under a division of ESPN and reported to Marie Donahue of ESPN's Exit 31 division. He was essentially the president and face of Grantland while ESPN remained the CEO and controlling interest of the board. ESPN likely doesn't provide him the resources at all without control of Grantland.

Then I question whether or not this was Simmons' original idea? Maybe it was ESPN's and they put Simmons on as the face of it? That would make a great deal more sense than Simmons coming to ESPN to pitch an idea and then simply handing over the rights to it.

It will certainly be interesting to see what his next move is. You have to think he will explore starting his own Grantland-like medium and try to poach guys like Lowe, Barnwell, Rembert, Morris, etc.. If Bill can steal a few of those guys, and he just might, Grantland could quickly become a joke. Problem is, Bill will always lose those bidding wars with ESPN without backing from another major media player. And as we all know, Bill is loathe to censor himself for corporate parent interests.

This is what I would expect him to do.

Create something very similar to Grantland. However, given how piss-poor the relationship was, and if it wasn't Simmons' original idea, then he may be barred from creating a competitive interest for the next several years.

 

[Jack Brickman]

http://deadspin.com/espners-bill-simmons-found-out-he-was-fired-on-twitter-1703112625

 

[MRMsix6]

To give you an idea of the model I'm referring to, there is a guy I used to blog with all the time on DailyKos, Nate Silver, who went from blogging there to blogging on his own site FiveThirtyEight. Back then, we were among a group almost entirely focused on poll analysis, and went back and forth projecting precincts in various elections.

Eventually his site was bought by the New York Times (IIRC), and he became an "employee," but he still retains a 40% stake in 538, and even if he were removed, he'd still get revenues from the operation. Now his site is very similar in design to Grantland, and covers politics, sports, and a host of other things with various NYT and 538 columnists on deck.

This model predates Grantland, and this is why I stated Simmons got bad advice.
He could've started the blog without ESPN, and worked out a cooperative arrangement with ESPN rather than them simply owning the IP rights, which again, was idiotic.

ESPN has since bought FiveThirtyEight and it's also controlled by the same division as Grantland and ESPN Films. Silver was listed as editor-in-chief in the announcement, but I'm not sure who the controlling interest is. I'd bet dollars to donuts it's ESPN.

 

[spydy13]

Eventually his site was bought by the New York Times (IIRC), and he became an "employee," but he still retains a 40% stake in 538, and even if he were removed, he'd still get revenues from the operation. Now his site is very similar in design to Grantland, and covers politics, sports, and a host of other things with various NYT and 538 columnists on deck.

ESPN is the one that bought 538. My guess is they try to push that platform more now.

 

[beefstew]

Sad news for my avi

 

[gourimoko]

ESPN is the one that bought 538. My guess is they try to push that platform more now.

"August 2010 the blog became a licensed feature of The New York Times online. It was renamed FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus. In July 2013, ESPN announced that it would become the owner of the FiveThirtyEight brand and site, and Silver was appointed as editor-in-chief.[1]The ESPN-owned FiveThirtyEight began publication on March 17, 2014."

 

[spydy13]

http://deadspin.com/espners-bill-simmons-found-out-he-was-fired-on-twitter-1703112625

https://youtu.be/28V-Jd938Bg

This is why Simmons is a joke.

"Oh, there's not enough solid evidence to know that Tom Brady did anything."

But when it comes to Goodell and Ray Rice "there's no doubt that he didn't know about that second video."

 

[gourimoko]

ESPN has since bought FiveThirtyEight and it's also controlled by the same division as Grantland and ESPN Films. Silver was listed as editor-in-chief in the announcement, but I'm not sure who the controlling interest is. I'd bet dollars to donuts it's ESPN.

I know for a fact (meaning hearsay, lol) that Silver no longer owns 538, I just thought it was the New York Times; but it looks like he lost majority ownership to ESPN not to NYT.

 

[gourimoko]

"One ESPNer points us to Simmons’s appearance on the Dan Patrick Show yesterday morning. (He took to the show to talk about Ballghazi.) Here’s the clip in question. On its face, nothing he said was too offensive, though he did take a couple shots at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, saying the handling of the scandal was “pathetic” and that Goodell lacked the “testicular fortitude to do anything until he gauges public reaction.” Not even wrong! Speaking about Ballghazi on another network, however, may have been a final, final, final straw."

Guess you don't fuck with Roger Goodell, huh?

 

[spydy13]

"August 2010 the blog became a licensed feature of The New York Times online. It was renamed FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus. In July 2013, ESPN announced that it would become the owner of the FiveThirtyEight brand and site, and Silver was appointed as editor-in-chief.[1]The ESPN-owned FiveThirtyEight began publication on March 17, 2014."

Ah, ok. I thought it wasn't until after he hit it big time with the 2012 elections that he tried to sell his blog for big money.

 

[gourimoko]

Ah, ok. I thought it wasn't until after he hit it big time with the 2012 elections that he tried to sell his blog for big money.

He was big-time right after 2008, which got a lot of folks at the Daily Kos pretty pissed off; especially when he became more centrist (he's still very progressive) and his predictions started to oversample Republicans (seemingly to get conservatives to read his blog)-- but that's another story for another thread.

 

[spydy13]

Guess you don't fuck with Roger Goodell, huh?

The NFL is way more of a money maker for them than lowly Bill Simmons. As I said in the thread about their draft coverage, it's always bad when the people covering a sport also directly benefit from airing that sport.