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ESPN Shuts down Grantland.com

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ESPN shuts down Grantland
ESPN is suspending Grantland, the company announced via a press release on Friday afternoon.

Grantland was previously run by Bill Simmons, who was effectively fired from the company earlier this year. Simmons has since joined HBO where he will debut a new show in 2016.

In shutting down Grantland, ESPN cited the need to "direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise."

Here is the announcement From ESPN:

Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland. After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.

Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun. We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent. Thanks to all the other writers, editors and staff who worked very hard to create content with an identifiable sensibility and consistent intelligence and quality. We also extend our thanks to Chris Connelly who stepped in to help us maintain the site these past five months as he returns to his prior role.

Despite this change, the legacy of smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms.

We'll continue to update the post as we learn move, and have reached out to ESPN for comment.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/espn-...ns-former-website-grantland-2015-10?r=US&IR=T

Wow.
 
Is this ESPN waiving the white flag on journalism? Moving to pure entertainment and less facts?
 
lol espn. so terrible

feel bad about the grantland people; though no doubt they'll all easily land elsewhere.
 
Wasn't a huge fan of Grantland as a whole, but I did like Zach Lowe's stuff. Hopefully he and all the other now-unemployed writers can get back on their feet soon.

ESPN clearly places more value in employing real life trolls like Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Jemele Hill, and the like.
 
Wasn't a huge fan of Grantland as a whole, but I did like Zach Lowe's stuff. Hopefully he and all the other now-unemployed writers can get back on their feet soon.

ESPN clearly places more value in employing real life trolls like Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Jemele Hill, and the like.

I really like Zach Lowe.. But, to your point :chuckle:

 
They're supposedly honoring all contracts and will fold the sports people into ESPN.com.

ETA: The news shouldn't really surprise anyone. They recently axed 300 of their own employees. Their subscription numbers have been falling in recent years and their rights fees have skyrocketed. They could have had someone else run Grantland, but it will always be associated with Simmons and they clearly want to cut all ties with him.
 
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ESPN negotiated 2 atrocious deals with the NFL and the new NBA deal. So Disney said cut $100M from next year's budget. Last week they fired 300 people and now this. More blood letting to come. Feel bad for all those people that have worked there for 20-30 years.
 
ESPN negotiated 2 atrocious deals with the NFL and the new NBA deal. So Disney said cut $100M from next year's budget. Last week they fired 300 people and now this. More blood letting to come. Feel bad for all those people that have worked there for 20-30 years.

Don't forget about the giant sum they put out for the CFP as well. Everyone has said that having live events is important in the DVR era, but I'm guessing the ad fees haven't caught up with the shit ton of money those events now cost.
 
I love Grantland, and would be super sad, except that I'm pretty sure the entire crew will just go to Bill Simmons new project, which will probably be better anyway, honestly.
 
With the level of talent they had on that site, I'm sure most of that group will move on to better things, and hopefully Zach Lowe reunites with Simmons at HBO. It's a damn shame for sure, as I really liked Grantland.
 
ESPN negotiated 2 atrocious deals with the NFL and the new NBA deal. So Disney said cut $100M from next year's budget. Last week they fired 300 people and now this. More blood letting to come. Feel bad for all those people that have worked there for 20-30 years.
don't forget the mlb deal either. dollar amount wasn't quite as high, but as a % increase it was similar to the nba deal and what did it get them? oh, one whole playoff game - and that wildcard one, at that? just lol. they messed up the last round of negotiations with major cable co's too.

ultimately, they bought in at the height of a bubble and agreed to massive long-term deals based on an outdated business model. sad part of it is the people suffering the consequences aren't the ones responsible for the mismanagement.
 
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Not only will I miss Zach Lowe, who as far as I'm concerned is the best NBA writer around, but I think Jonah Keri is just as good writing about baseball as Lowe is about basketball. I'm somewhat ambivalent about the loss of the pop culture part of the site, but they had some incredibly talented guys writing on the sports section and I'd hate to see them writing as normal ESPN employees.
 
I'd hate to see them writing as normal ESPN employees.

This sentiment has been espoused by a few people on here, and I'm just curious as to why that matters? As long as their still able to write the long-form content that they've always produced does it really matter if it on ESPN.com versus a ESPN subsidiary?
 
This sentiment has been espoused by a few people on here, and I'm just curious as to why that matters? As long as their still able to write the long-form content that they've always produced does it really matter if it on ESPN.com versus a ESPN subsidiary?

If they have the freedom to put out the same content, I wouldn't mind. But I feel like it's inevitable that under a different editor with different goals, they'll limit a lot of what made Grantland so unique and original. Hell, they already mentioned in the letter that they want a "broader and more significant impact".

Anyways, look for Woj to try to hire Zach Lowe. Just a guess, but the pieces line up.
 

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