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The OtherArena
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 17247
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 Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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4 highly regarded @Grantland33 staffers turned in resignations today to @ESPN and will be going to work for @BillSimmons
Morris already left for the New York Times.
My guess is that Lowe is one of them.
Barnwell is liked by Bill, and I've grown to enjoy reading his stuff quite a bit. But I'm not sure if James Miller would call him "highly regarded".
Andy Greenwald is extremly prolific in writing and podcasting. He also has developed relationships with people in the tv business. If Bill is trying to go beyond just sports, Greenwald is someone he probably would grab. One also wonders if ESPN sees any value in the non-sports side of Grantland.
Rembert Browne isn't sports releated either, but I think Bill likes him a good deal. He's not terribly prolific.
It still isn't clear if Bill is doing a Grantland 2.0. He indicated in a recent interview that he was doing too much stuff before cutting the ties with ESPN, and gave the impression that he was going to try to be a little more focused. |
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jdw
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| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Robert Mays might hit the "highly regarded" tag more than Barnwell. Bill likes both. |
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guren
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1205
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 17247
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| Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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Zach:
| Quote: | Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA Oct 12
All five people who left Grantland on Friday are wonderful as editors, writers, podcasters, thinkers, people. Tough day. |
| Quote: | Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA Oct 12
On a personal note, @sean_fennessey has been one of my 2 direct editors for 3 years. One of the very best I've come across in journalism. |
Hard to read into this.
If Zach was leaving, especially leaving for Bill's new site, you'd wonder about the sadness. In the sense that he'd lay low, do his job, and leave when it's time to leave.
On the other hand, I suspect that working at Grantland has been the most rewarding job Zach has had to this point. If he also is leaving in the near future, the "tough day" sadness might be seeing that run coming to an end. You can know that you're heading out the door, but when those that you work with who made it a great place are heading out before you... that probably is pretty tough.
It may be #2.
I do get the sense that if ESPN was going to retain anyone to roll into ESPN.com that it would be Lowe and Jonah Keri. Jonah has already been getting run on TV. He's very prolific: 9 articles or podcasts in the first 12 days of October, and 17 last month. You want guys churning out content at ESPN, where as Simmons found balance between the prolific guys like Keri and Greenwald and the selective guys like Browne.
The thing with Lowe is that he probably knows he's at a stage to cash in. With a new child, he probably wants some place stable. ESPN is that. But Time Warner where Bill is at is also that: he could do NBA.com, NBA TV, SBNation, whatever Bill's Grantland 2.0 is, podcasting, etc. |
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 17247
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| Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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Two articles on Vanity Fair by the well connected Jim Miller:
Can ESPN Solve Its Grantland Problem?
The Drama Continues at Grantland
With both Morris & Rembert heading elsewhere, one does wonder what Bill has in mind for SimmonsLand 2.0. They would be among the anchor non-sports guys he would have grabbed, especially Morris. |
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Tom Greaves
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 169
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
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| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:47 am Post subject: |
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| Grantland was closed down today. All sympathies go to those out of work, but once Simmons was gone, this was only a matter of time. |
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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Ugh. We knew it was coming, but you thought it might be more elegantly handled. That they would set a date, that they would begin integrating those staying into ESPN.com is a sort of a dual fashion, etc. Instead they just kill it dead.
Some tweets, the first probably indicating that Miller had a whiff of something big happening, but perhaps not this big:
James Andrew Miller @JimMiller
Lots of uncertainty & a bit of turbulence for @Grantland33 today & next several days. Let's see who & what are still standing. #ESPN
9:33 AM - 30 Oct 2015
James Andrew Miller @JimMiller
The decision to end @Grantland33 was a very recent one according to sources at @espn
11:04 AM - 30 Oct 2015
Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA
/turns phone off
11:05 AM - 30 Oct 2015
That one makes me sad. :(
James Andrew Miller @JimMiller
Lots of talented people worked at @Grantland33 there is no joy surrounding this decision.
11:06 AM - 30 Oct 2015
James Andrew Miller @JimMiller
All @Grantland33 writers will have their contracts honored; intent is to use sports writers on other @espn platforms.
11:18 AM - 30 Oct 2015
Of course they're going to honor contracts, unless they have termination language (i.e. the ability to "no cause" term on 30 day or 90 day notice). But those that they really don't want to do much with are just going to be set aside while their contract runs out. If they had anyone on a longer deal that they don't want, they'll work on a buyout.
Of course Bill was going to take a shot:
Bill Simmons @BillSimmons
I loved everyone I worked with at G and loved what we built. Watching good/kind/talented people get treated so callously = simply appalling.
11:37 AM - 30 Oct 2015 |
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Bob Morris
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 2886
Location: New Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Sad news. Hopefully the more insightful writers find work elsewhere. |
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guren
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1205
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| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Tom Greaves
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 169
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
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| Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 10:44 am Post subject: |
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How Grantland Died
Some ex-Grantlanders anonymously take shots at Simmons, claiming this:
| Quote: | In retrospect, the editorial exodus looks to have been more or less the end. One Grantlander says that no one knew the four editors were leaving to join Simmons until the day they left. That’s because, another source says, Simmons has been warring with ESPN both by acting as a source for writer Jim Miller, and by more nefarious means.
While Grantland writers are on contract, editors are at-will. The four editors’ exits were coordinated, and Simmons, according to this source, told the editors who jumped ship with him that a condition of their employment was that they couldn’t warn anyone at ESPN they were leaving, in order to hit the site as hard as possible.
“He put his beef with [ESPN president John] Skipper above the jobs of dozens of people,” one Grantland staffer said.
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That last quote is sour grapes. But it's pretty believable that Simmons would want to fuck over ESPN, and that ESPN would then shutter the site out of spite. Outside of Brian Phillips', Bryan Curtis', and Mark Lisanti's work, I didn't care for the site, but even if Simmons is innocent, it's too bad that Grantland will be remembered more for its ugly end than its content.
Tom |
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guren
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 17247
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Interesting read. To use a wrestling analogy, Obama was Flair carrying Sting Simmons in it. :P |
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corrado
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 5008
Location: LI
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jdw
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 17247
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:05 am Post subject: |
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| So it does look like he's starting Grantland 2.0. Wonder how many of his old writers he eventually hires, or how many have a bad taste in their mouths. |
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Tom Greaves
Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 169
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| jdw wrote: | | So it does look like he's starting Grantland 2.0. Wonder how many of his old writers he eventually hires, or how many have a bad taste in their mouths. |
A bunch of the old culture writers were hired at MTV News, of all places.
Whatever happens with Simmons' new site, at least it's a better name than Grantland. Although it sharing a name with a godawful Johnny Knoxville/Katherine Heigel rom-com isn't any better than being named after the legendarily hacky Grantland Rice, come to think of it. |
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