Simmons suspended

[Big Circus]

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.

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.

I love responsive design, but you can certainly go too far in emphasizing it.

 

[Joe Williams]

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.

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.

I love responsive design, but you can certainly go too far in emphasizing it.

To me, Big Circus, SI's site is the equivalent of your avi.

 

[YankeeFan]

Suspension ends today.

Simmons declined to comment. Since his suspension, he has surfaced only in snapshots on his Instagram account — Simmons at the beach, Simmons on the golf course — seemingly designed to let ESPN know that he's enjoying his time off. But people close to Simmons say he is furious and has been talking a lot about whether ESPN is still the right place for him. He has threatened to leave ESPN before, but this is the most pitched moment yet in their fraught relationship.

Those close to Simmons said he feels that the company has changed significantly since he renewed his current contract in 2009. In the intervening years, John Walsh, the ESPN executive who gave Simmons his first assignment after reading a column in which he mocked the award show the ESPYs, has played a diminishing role in the company. John Skipper, another early Simmons champion, was elevated to president of ESPN.

While Skipper remains a strong supporter of Simmons, he has less day-to-day involvement with the company's editorial operations. It was not Skipper, but an executive vice president at ESPN who reports to him, Marie Donoghue, who called Simmons to inform him of his suspension.

Last week, Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN, was asked about the controversy at a conference hosted by Vanity Fair magazine. Iger would only say that Simmons was taken off the air because his comments about Goodell, made in the thick of the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal, did not conform to ESPN's journalism standards.

If Simmons were to leave ESPN, he could move to another media conglomerate, such as Fox, or to a digital media giant like Yahoo or AOL. (He actually first made his name blogging for AOL for $50 a week.)

It seems more likely that Simmons would want to create a multiplatform business of his own. Hypothetically, anyway, it could include a production studio that makes sports films and documentaries for a distributor like HBO or Netflix; a podcast network; a website; and maybe a YouTube channel.

Simmons will have to weigh the profile, access and guaranteed salary he gets from ESPN against the uncertain promise of building something of his own.

nyti.ms/11mtope

 

[Steak Snabler]

Simmons seems to be kind of stuck at ESPN.

No other network is going to give him the exposure --- or access to his beloved NBA --- that ESPN does. That's why I don't think he'd go to Fox.

If he went off on his own, his lifestyle would take a serious hit. Adam Carolla's podcast gets something like 2 million downloads a week and he's a best-selling author, but he still has to go on the road doing stand-up and live shows every weekend to supplement his income.

 

[Songbird]

Stuck at ESPN? Boo-hoo, where's the violin?

First he was all bent out of shape that the big Boston rags wouldn't give him a shot.

Years later he has the world at his fingertips and it's still not enough.

I'm as restless as the next guy but JFC, Bill, you sit on the throne. You can do whatever you want.

What more do you want?

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

I think people are making way too big a deal out of this.

Simmons would have no shortage of suitors if he left ESPN, but I think he knows it's probably not in his best interest to do that, especially since he would have to leave his baby (Grantland) to do so.

I equate his relationship with ESPN to Kornheiser's about a decade ago. Tumultuous at times, but they need each other.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Heard and read a lot of stuff that podcasts are a dying medium.
They're no doubt exciting and entertaining, but difficult to monetize.

 

[Alma]

I think people are making way too big a deal out of this.

Simmons would have no shortage of suitors if he left ESPN, but I think he knows it's probably not in his best interest to do that, especially since he would have to leave his baby (Grantland) to do so.

I equate his relationship with ESPN to Kornheiser's about a decade ago. Tumultuous at times, but they need each other.

I suspect all he'd have to leave is the name "Grantland," a name he didn't even want. ESPN kills it if he's gone. 5 million visitors a month? How many of those are linked to Simmons himself? At least half.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Heard and read a lot of stuff that podcasts are a dying medium.
They're no doubt exciting and entertaining, but difficult to monetize.

They're dying because everybody is trying to do one and most of them suck and the shirtty ones don't get advertisers. The good ones seem to be doing fine. The good ones will survive and the crappy ones won't.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I think suck is subjective.
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I've heard no-names whose were better to me than eisen's.
I dont care about celebrities and Hollywood BS, I want to be entertained while I'm doing something boring.

 

[CD Boogie]

He's not going anywhere. ESPN made him and without that huge platform he'd be back in the pack. ESPN trimmed his sails with that suspension.

 

[Joe Williams]

If he went off on his own, his lifestyle would take a serious hit. Adam Carolla's podcast gets something like 2 million downloads a week and he's a best-selling author, but he still has to go on the road doing stand-up and live shows every weekend to supplement his income.

"Has to?" Maybe Carolla enjoys the live stuff, like Leno. Maybe he wants to rake in as much as he can as fast as he can. Maybe it's cross-promotional and doing live shows is a great way to build audience for his podcast and his book.

We can't presume to know whether he needs stand-up money, wants stand-up money or just wants to do stand-up regardless of the money.