Michael Silver leaves Sports Illustrated for Yahoo Sports

What about a potential name change, while still technically being part of yahoo? Right now, the site comes off as the sports news arm of a site people might visit for - as previous posters have said - fantasy, directions, phone numbers. Also just general news and e-mail. But it's not a destination. I have a few friends who visit Yahoo! for sports coverage, but it's not a must-see for them.

I'd see ESPN like this if it was only part of abcnews' website, not all blown out with random, exploding vidoes. But if yahoo could package a name change - even a logo change - with the right presentation, all that talent would start to stand out.

 

Shockey, when was the last time anyone said, 'man, did you see that awesome piece in SI on ...?' I'm not knocking SI ... obviously they do great work. The only way to find out what stories have been looked at is to work there. I don't know of any place that willingly offers that info. When i freelanced for espn.com it was like pulling teeth to find out if people were clicking on my garbage. Here i was, thinking, this Bill Simmons guy isn't anything special ... and then they told me his numbers and I was pretty blown away.

 

you're kidding, right? i have folks i know, in and out of the biz, mention s.i pieces they've read quite often. never, ever have these same folks even mentioned they knew yahoo! has a sports site.

sorry to anyone whose bubbles might be bursting. it's not scientific at all. just life experience.

 

I would agree, Shockey, that people in the business, particularly those older than 35, would tend to go to SI in part because of the fond memories of reading it.

But just because nobody we know rushes to Yahoo Sports doesn't mean it's not popular. No one I know was ever a Michael Jackson fan, but he still sold hundreds of millions of records. No one I know goes to Red Lobster, but it's still a popular restaurant chain. No one I know... (ad infinitum)

 

No question SI is a bigger and better brand name than Yahoo Sports. Not even close. Are many, many folks going to Yahoo for fantasy sports? Sure. But the hit numbers are consistent - it's not like Yahoo will see a 5 million dropoff once NBA or MLB fantasy sports cease.

It's just that nowadays, people get their sports from 9-5 at their desk ... and surfing the net for quick sports news. You can't sit at your desk and read SI. And when you go home, are you reading magazines or playing video games? I subscribe to 3 magazines and rarely get time to read them at home. The only time i read them are on airplanes, the subway, the beach or the pool. When I'm at home, it's working on side projects or spending time with the wife.

It's only been 20 years since 1987, but it feels like 100, doesn't it? You thought sports in 1987, you thought SI.

 

I last subscribed to SI in the mid-80s. I recently gave it another look over several months. I see the People-ization is almost complete. Many short, dumb items affording easy entry for a witless TV-hammered readership such as the culture grid, which I do remember fondly from Spy's salad days. Frequent features along the lines of Tony and Eva's wedding -- gag me with a remote control. The very rare worthy feature, such as the Little Rock HS football piece or 'green' issue. Just as rare and shameful, wasting Gary Smith on a routine Mets profile. Far less than a shell of its former self.

 

As far as Silver leaving goes, he would've had a much better deal at ESPN. The website is still king in sports and makes more money than any other sports website by far. And the magazine make a shitload of money, is growing in circulation, and has good writers (all of which SI is going down the tubes in). My opinion, he waited way too long to get out of SI. Yahoo ain't bad, but you gotta figure he went to ESPN first though...

 

One interesting thing that I've noticed over that last few days - talking to a wide variety of journalists: Many of my friends and co-workers say that they don't read Yahoo Sports regularly, but almost all of them said their kids (ages 10 to 25) read the site regularly. So I asked some of our current and past interns, and they say they read it regularly, too.

It made me realize that Yahoo is branding an audience. Just an audience that is a lot younger than me. And now that I think about it, I grew up reading Sporting News and Sports Digest and SI, and I continued to read them right into my middle age. I think it's fair to subscribe to the idea that in 5-10 years, when the internet generation continues to mature, that Yahoo Sports will take root as very, very mainstream and relevant.

That said, I'm sure they are trying to speed up that incubation period now with these hires, and they very well might do that. But I'm willing to bet my house that when the kids and teenagers of today grow into adults, they'll follow Yahoo Sports much the same way I did with SI and Sporting News.

Just a thought.

 

Well put. I love The Big Lead just as much as the next guy (and probably moreso, since it's No. 4 on my morning routine, behind work site, email and SportsJournalists.com), but to sensationalize Silver's leaving by saying "The SI Ship Is Sinking" is too much of a stretch. It has made for good conversation, though.

 

I'm under 25, I'm an obsessive, on-the-site-all-night Yahoo Fantasy player, I love "good writing," and I read a ton of sports-related stuff - on paper, seems like I should be the Yahoo Content Machine's biggest fan. Aside from Wojo, though, the writer of theirs I read most often is...Steve Freaking Kerr. (Who's actually rather talented, but still.) For whatever reason - and I haven't spent much time thinking about it - they've done a very poor job advertising what they've got.

 

Agreed. Yahoo has to do a better job advertising what their team of writers is doing. But how? Honestly, I can't think of a thing.

 

His SI company credit card had a larger limit than most of ours, and less scrutiny on the charges, let's put it that way.