More Cuts at ESPN

Doc Holliday · Apr 26, 2017

playthrough said: ↑

The dough was indeed insane about a decade ago for freelancers at espn.com, I was one of them. Never had a formal contract, but I had weekly assignments plus some travel and every time I thought I would get paid X dollars for the month, it would be X plus a few hundred more. My boss once told me what his freelance budget was and that he was going to spend every cent of it every year, to show the beancounters that it was necessary. My favorite story was when I covered one sport on-location for nearly a month and was expecting a big check. When it arrived, it was double what it should have been. Now in this case it was an obvious clerical error, I could see on the check stub that the line-item was entered twice. I called my boss. "Tell you what, sit on it for a month," he said. "If I don't hear about it from accounting, then cash it and consider it your bonus." I did, and did, and my wife and I renovated our front porch with that "bonus." Called it the Chris Berman patio until we sold that house.

With 20/20 hindsight, I know espn didn't need me covering some of the stuff that I did. You'd laugh out loud if I told you some of it. But like Michael_Gee said, they were absolutely everything to everyone. And my gravy train lasted a good three-plus years until the economy went south and people stopped going to DisneyWorld for a while. Then, espn freelance budgets were slashed everywhere. I think that was their first major market correction. Today sounds like the second.
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Just out of curiosity, about what were they paying you since it was so ridiculous?

HanSenSE · Apr 26, 2017

The list keeps growing ...

cisforkoke · Apr 26, 2017

I'm curious. Does anyone know if Dallas Braden, Doug Glanville, and Raul Ibanez were part of ESPN's cuts?

UPChip · Apr 26, 2017

playthrough said: ↑

The dough was indeed insane about a decade ago for freelancers at espn.com, I was one of them. Never had a formal contract, but I had weekly assignments plus some travel and every time I thought I would get paid X dollars for the month, it would be X plus a few hundred more. My boss once told me what his freelance budget was and that he was going to spend every cent of it every year, to show the beancounters that it was necessary. My favorite story was when I covered one sport on-location for nearly a month and was expecting a big check. When it arrived, it was double what it should have been. Now in this case it was an obvious clerical error, I could see on the check stub that the line-item was entered twice. I called my boss. "Tell you what, sit on it for a month," he said. "If I don't hear about it from accounting, then cash it and consider it your bonus." I did, and did, and my wife and I renovated our front porch with that "bonus." Called it the Chris Berman patio until we sold that house.

With 20/20 hindsight, I know espn didn't need me covering some of the stuff that I did. You'd laugh out loud if I told you some of it. But like Michael_Gee said, they were absolutely everything to everyone. And my gravy train lasted a good three-plus years until the economy went south and people stopped going to DisneyWorld for a while. Then, espn freelance budgets were slashed everywhere. I think that was their first major market correction. Today sounds like the second.
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If it was really the Chris Berman porch, it wouldn't be in the front. It would be in the back back back back back back back back.

Flip Wilson · Apr 26, 2017

DanOregon said: ↑

There are no high paying sports jobs in Top 40 markets. Local news is cutting the hell out of sports departments, sometimes having anchors do a few local scores and not much more. The top salaries in most major TV markets for a top anchor 20 years ago are probably what a top anchor makes today. And that's news.
If you're lucky you do three minutes of TV at 11 p.m. and have a radio show for three hours in the afternoon and write a column for the local paper.
The SF ABC outlet has Larry Beill doing a news/sports hybrid thing (with authority!) on the weekends. You are probably better off going to a market with a big time college program like Birmingham, Waco or Lexington if you want to be a big deal in a market. Even the local cable sports outlets are shedding their staffs right and left.
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I live in one of those markets, and I couldn't tell you the name of any of the sports anchors at the three TV stations here. A few years ago, yeah, they were big deals. But the big deals left -- or took a job at the local U that they had been covering -- and stations brought in a new crop of young lookalikes who, I believe, aren't terrible, but not very memorable either.

Inky_Wretch · Apr 26, 2017

Dr. Jerry? Damn.

spikechiquet · Apr 26, 2017

Just to stir the pot...a theory thrown out by someone online:
What political affiliations were the people cut?

I don't believe this had anything to do with it...but you know some right-wing site is trying to find an anti-liberal agenda.

LongTimeListener · Apr 26, 2017

spikechiquet said: ↑

Just to stir the pot...a theory thrown out by someone online:
What political affiliations were the people cut?

I don't believe this had anything to do with it...but you know some right-wing site is trying to find an anti-liberal agenda.
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That doesn't stir the pot. That just shows everyone how stupid you are.

MileHigh · Apr 26, 2017

HanSenSE said: ↑

Now laid-off Dodgers reporter:

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Former co-worker with whom I shared many a beers with in the Berdoo days and hearing the Banning train story -- among many. Great guy. Really, you're keeping ESPNLA.com, but dumping your Dodgers writer? I know, I know, it's the bean counters making the cuts. And I've been there. But it still sucks.

cjericho · Apr 26, 2017

Inky_Wretch said: ↑

Dr. Jerry? Damn.
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Pretty sure he'll be OK.

heyabbott · Apr 26, 2017

cjericho said: ↑

What about the angry old white guys? None of them ever had jobs?
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Not the angry ones, not now. When they were working they didn't watch the news between 8 & 11. Sports or sit-Com's. Maybe went bowling once a week. Under employed. Under educated. Take note of the commercials on Fox and MSNBC at night. More people might watch Fox, but the aggregate wealth of MSNBC is greater than Fox viewers.

MileHigh · Apr 26, 2017

HanSenSE said: ↑

Baggs just isn't taking this well ...

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Yeah, the Badge is taking it hard. Rightly. We've seen this at newspapers since the turn of the century. Now it's hitting home at the largest sports behemoth. And it's only the beginning.

And FYI, Doug and Andy were on the same staff in the late 1990s in SoCal, along with me and many other talented folks. Dem were the days.

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Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

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More Cuts at ESPN

Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

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spikechiquet Well-Known Member

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