Simmons suspended

Business Insider: Simmons-launched properties don't generate as much traffic as he thinks and he isn't worth the reported $3 million he makes a year

http://www.businessinsider.com/grantland-and-fivethirtyeight-traffic-2014-10

 

The most cursory reading shows that Grantland was never designed to compete with Deadspin and SB Nation any more than fivethirtyeight is supposed to compete with CNN. Its goal, stated by Simmons itself, was to present more ambitious writing. It was a prestige deal for ESPN, like Outside the Lines. Also, they pay Simmons for more than just the site. He's an idea guy at bottom, and they wanted first dibs on any future ideas.

 

Jesus, you on one of your benders tonight?

Farts original post was actually interesting, yours? Not so much.

 

Gawker sites tend to cater to puerile dinks and misanthropes, true enough.
But ESPN hired some of the best writers in the industry.
it's a fair guess they wanted to take the hill and not just be some site for boutique journalism.
ESPN has not been in the habit of finishing second.

 

ESPN also can afford a few boutique sites if it wants.

 

That's interesting. So- Simmons fans can have it both ways.
If Grantland's analytics are bad it's because it was never trying to compete with its peers.
Because it hired the likes of Charlie Pierce so it wouldn't be able to stand toe to toe with fking Deadspin.

 

1. The panache Grantland brings ESPN is valuable in its own way. Like their online OTL brand, it allows them to maintain a certain journalistic/creative integrity when so much content appeals to lowest common denominators.

2. ESPN can afford for their affinity sites to fall short of competitor numbers because these sites don't stand alone. As a package, they offer outlets for several different niches, which, when you're trying to be the one-stop shop for sports fans, has value, as well. See: Sports Illustrated and all of the verticals/affinity sites it has launched in recent months.

3. Comparing apples to apples, I'm betting those numbers aren't so bad. Deadspin isn't really analogous, as so much of their traffic comes from their willingness to post standalone GIFs, dick pics, click-bait, etc. But Grantland certainly did better than Sports on Earth 1.0.

 

I think that's an exaggeration. I only believe that Grantland was never intended to have a real mass audience. Whether it is meeting the targets ESPN set for it is another question. But aside from not liking that he's a pain in the ass, I have never seen any reporting that ESPN thinks Simmons the product and content creator was a poor business decision. It would be an extraordinarily poor business decision for Simmons to take Grantland and leave ESPN, but he hasn't made many bad business choices in his career.

 

Tangentially, I honestly can no longer navigate SI's site any more. It's a total mess. It's like trying to read a sweater from 1986.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with you. As much as I like the additions of Planet Futbol, SI Edge, MMQB, etc., the new block-y design is cumbersome. Maybe it's better on a tablet. I wouldn't know.

 

When is he "going public?"