More Cuts at ESPN

[Jake_Taylor]

Even if you take the trans issue out of it, it takes a lot of balls to tell somebody what name they have to use.

 

[cisforkoke]

Yeah, this ship is destined to sink. We tried. We failed.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

On breaking stories: that's part of my job. And you know who cares? Our bosses.

Do they care as much as they used to? It just seems like often a lot of effort goes into beating other writers on a beat by two minutes. And then the press release comes out 15 minutes later.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

Do they care as much as they used to? It just seems like often a lot of effort goes into beating other writers on a beat by two minutes. And then the press release comes out 15 minutes later.

Yes. There was a recent one that was pretty big. We got it. Can't really go into detail, but it was important to our guys.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Does "important to our guys" translate in any way to business though?

As a general rule, bosses have been wrong about everything in assessing their audience for the last 15-20 years. (I don't know yours though and the Canadian market might be different.)

 

[CD Boogie]

On breaking stories: that's part of my job. And you know who cares? Our bosses.

Since you can't say it, allow me: Your bosses seem like idiots for caring that much. Is it bringing genuine value to the company? If not, its importance seems to be overvalued.

 

[Hermes]

I'm a few pages behind here...

Has this one been posted ?

ESPN Is Not Doomed

This year, ESPN will spend more than $8 billion on sports rights—including about $2 billion for men's college football and basketball, $1.9 billion for the NFL, $1.4 billion for the NBA, and $700 for baseball.

Baseball really is dying, isn't it?

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

Does "important to our guys" translate in any way to business though?

As a general rule, bosses have been wrong about everything in assessing their audience for the last 15-20 years. (I don't know yours though and the Canadian market might be different.)

The only correlation I can make is that our station (Sportsnet) and our competitor (TSN) do competing Trade Deadline and Free Agency shows every year. TSN was a long-time rightsholder before us, and has three very credible "newsbreakers" in Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun. So far, they have outdrawn us on those days, even though we are the major rightsholder. We both sell those shows, so there is a business benefit to improving our numbers and identity.

That's all I can give you, though.

 

[gravehunter]

Jemele Hill does herself no favors on Twitter.

or on TV

 

[CD Boogie]

or on TV

or in print

 

[Doc Holliday]

You're very courageous.

Thanks. Most days I don't even try and I still am.

 

[Doc Holliday]

On breaking stories: that's part of my job. And you know who cares? Our bosses.

Maybe yours do, but mine sure as heck don't. Even my publisher is smart enough to understand we can't beat people on a story 95% of the time now. Newspapers are dead.