ESPN pay cuts?

[SportsGuyBCK]

Wow.


EDIT: Hope the WWL doesn't give him the Reilly treatment.

Just don't let him do a Miller Lite commercial with a supermodel, and he'll be fine ...

 

[Twirling Time]

ESPN's secret plan to halve its work force may be to fly Caitlin Clark into Bristol. She has a way of making male journos step on rakes.

 

[playthrough]

Surprising. I didn't think they were doing journalism anymore. I'm guessing that means the end of the Yahoo podcast of Wetzel, Ross Dellinger and Pat Forde. That would be a bummer. My favorite podcast.

Forde stayed on after going to SI, maybe Wetzel could keep doing it? Ehhh probably not, but ESPN would up its podcast game considerably if it just bought this from Yahoo.

 

[MileHigh]

Big get by ESPN, which has been in major cost-cutting mode. Dan is tremendous.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

ESPN is paying SAS $20 million per year. How many associate producers will be laid off due to that?

 

[Webster]

Zach Lowe back to The Ringer. I wonder how much he left on the table to get back into the world of writing/podcasting.

 

[Della9250]

Zach Lowe back to The Ringer. I wonder how much he left on the table to get back into the world of writing/podcasting.

Did he have much of a choice? He got fired and needed a job

 

[poindexter]

Zach Lowe back to The Ringer. I wonder how much he left on the table to get back into the world of writing/podcasting.

Who was offering him money that he left on the table?

 

[Webster]

ESPN was paying him out on his fixed term contract, as they have done for others. It's an accounting move, as you can take all of the cost of a fixed term contract in the fiscal year that you fire someone so that the later years (where profitability is supposed to be worse) look better. Lowe was let go right before the end of the fiscal year as were a few others. Not sure when his contract was set to expire, but if he gets another job and they agree to let him work (they don't need to), then they can literally cut their losses.

 

[sgreenwell]

ESPN was paying him out on his fixed term contract, as they have done for others. It's an accounting move, as you can take all of the cost of a fixed term contract in the fiscal year that you fire someone so that the later years (where profitability is supposed to be worse) look better. Lowe was let go right before the end of the fiscal year as were a few others. Not sure when his contract was set to expire, but if he gets another job and they agree to let him work (they don't need to), then they can literally cut their losses.

From the timing of this, I kind of assume that his non-compete or existing contract ran out on March 31. He got laid off in late September, so it would be almost 6 months exactly.

 

[Webster]

From the timing of this, I kind of assume that his non-compete or existing contract ran out on March 31. He got laid off in late September, so it would be almost 6 months exactly.

Would seem odd to have an NBA analyst's contract expire during the season.

 

[sgreenwell]

Would seem odd to have an NBA analyst's contract expire during the season.

The contract might have language requiring 6 months of payments for early termination, but typically when you get severance like that, you can't work for a competitor. Is it enforceable? Debatable, but I think it was reported that Lowe was getting seven figures at ESPN, so it probably wasn't in his interests to push the matter anyway.

Also, ESPN fired him as the season was starting, which also seems like a stupid time. (i.e. Paying him for most of the basketball offseason vs. breaking down games, which is more of his area.) Most of their budget cuts haven't really implied much of an overall plan beyond "we need to get costs down because we lost more cable carriage fees this quarter."