Bill Simmons Leaving ESPN

[Muffinalt]

Didn't know if this had been posted anywhere, but this would be awesome...


Sources: Adrian Wojnarowski Is Pitching His Own Vanity Site

The one truly indispensable basketball reporter is making moves. According to multiple sources, Yahoo reporter Adrian Wojnarowski has approached a number of basketball writers over the past few weeks and pitched them on joining a new personality-driven basketball website that he is contemplating. It’s unclear what the website would look like or who would fund it—one source described Wojnarowski’s pitch as “peddling” the site—but it sounds like it is being modeled on Sports Illustrated’s MMQB, the extremely successful football-only standalone site led by Peter King, which has a staff of around 10.

The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, a former colleague of Wojnarowski’s at The Record (Bergen County, NJ), reports that FOX, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated are all courting Wojnarowski, but our sources say Mcintyre has the story backwards: that Wojnarowski is pitching a website to them. It is also highly unlikely that ESPN, who had conversations with Wojnarowski’s agent when his contract was up in 2012, would pursue Wojnarowski, given the many problems with their own personality-driven websites. For his part, Wojnarowski has a well-known disdain for ESPN.

Wojnarowski signed a contract with Yahoo in 2012, and according to a source it expires during this coming offseason. If Wojnarowski is looking for writers, this summer is as good of a time as any to find them. The contracts of the four basketball writers Bleacher Report hired two years ago in their push for increased quality—Howard Beck, Kevin Ding, Ethan Skolnick, Jared Zwerling—are up soon. Meanwhile, Grantland’s basketball crew—Jonathan Abrams, Zach Lowe, Kirk Goldsberry, and assorted others—are said to be hesitant of their future at ESPN after Bill Simmons’s unceremonious ouster.

While MMQB has been a success for Sports Illustrated, it remains to be seen whether there is an audience appetite for a basketball-only site. Wojnarowski seems ready to find out, though—according to a source, he’s approached Ding, Goldsberry, and CBS Sports’ Ken Berger. (None of them returned emails seeking comment, and Wojnarowski didn’t return an email or phone call.)

He should seriously consider @Chris Parker.

 

[theSTEREO.]

I'd be pretty on board for a Woj site.

Still dreading the downfall of Grantland. I love that site.

 

[Marcus]

Didn't know if this had been posted anywhere, but this would be awesome...


Sources: Adrian Wojnarowski Is Pitching His Own Vanity Site

The one truly indispensable basketball reporter is making moves. According to multiple sources, Yahoo reporter Adrian Wojnarowski has approached a number of basketball writers over the past few weeks and pitched them on joining a new personality-driven basketball website that he is contemplating. It’s unclear what the website would look like or who would fund it—one source described Wojnarowski’s pitch as “peddling” the site—but it sounds like it is being modeled on Sports Illustrated’s MMQB, the extremely successful football-only standalone site led by Peter King, which has a staff of around 10.

The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, a former colleague of Wojnarowski’s at The Record (Bergen County, NJ), reports that FOX, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated are all courting Wojnarowski, but our sources say Mcintyre has the story backwards: that Wojnarowski is pitching a website to them. It is also highly unlikely that ESPN, who had conversations with Wojnarowski’s agent when his contract was up in 2012, would pursue Wojnarowski, given the many problems with their own personality-driven websites. For his part, Wojnarowski has a well-known disdain for ESPN.

Wojnarowski signed a contract with Yahoo in 2012, and according to a source it expires during this coming offseason. If Wojnarowski is looking for writers, this summer is as good of a time as any to find them. The contracts of the four basketball writers Bleacher Report hired two years ago in their push for increased quality—Howard Beck, Kevin Ding, Ethan Skolnick, Jared Zwerling—are up soon. Meanwhile, Grantland’s basketball crew—Jonathan Abrams, Zach Lowe, Kirk Goldsberry, and assorted others—are said to be hesitant of their future at ESPN after Bill Simmons’s unceremonious ouster.

While MMQB has been a success for Sports Illustrated, it remains to be seen whether there is an audience appetite for a basketball-only site. Wojnarowski seems ready to find out, though—according to a source, he’s approached Ding, Goldsberry, and CBS Sports’ Ken Berger. (None of them returned emails seeking comment, and Wojnarowski didn’t return an email or phone call.)

I would love this. All of those guys from Grantland -- Lowe in particular -- are wasted on ESPN.

 

[col63onel]

He should seriously consider @Chris Parker.

Chris is way better than Ken Berger, at least.

 

[mrbeaks]

Whitlock isn't being fired, just removed as editor in charge at The Undefeated.

Basically, he was so bad at his job creating his own website, they demoted his ass back to writing random shit instead of getting his own website to claim everyone is a racist.

I don't know when Whitlock's contract expires, but I can't imagine he's going to stick around ESPN much longer. This is humiliating. He'll disappear, quietly be let out of his contract (or fired if he makes a stink), and then one day you'll see his byline at SBNation or Bleacher Report.

Woj running a basketball-specific site would be fascinating. I'd definitely read it, though I don't know that it's got a high-enough ceiling traffic-wise to allow for him to snatch up a bunch of top-flight writers.

As for Grantland, I hope it survives without Simmons, but that's beginning to appear unlikely. They need a marquee name to save it, and good luck finding one of those. Thanks a lot, John Skipper.

 

[Simon]

I don't know when Whitlock's contract expires, but I can't imagine he's going to stick around ESPN much longer. This is humiliating. He'll disappear, quietly be let out of his contract (or fired if he makes a stink), and then one day you'll see his byline at SBNation or Bleacher Report.

Woj running a basketball-specific site would be fascinating. I'd definitely read it, though I don't know that it's got a high-enough ceiling traffic-wise to allow for him to snatch up a bunch of top-flight writers.

As for Grantland, I hope it survives without Simmons, but that's beginning to appear unlikely. They need a marquee name to save it, and good luck finding one of those. Thanks a lot, John Skipper.

I think he can make it happen. He has a lot of sources that many other high-end writers don't have. I'm sure Woj is guaranteeing that he'll give the other writers some of his sources for them to join the site.