Say Goodbye to those ESPN Personalities Ya'll Love So Much: Official ESPN Layoffs Thread

[<<TheStandard>>]

That's wild to me. Never would've expected them to let Zach go. I would guess because he never leaned enough into going heavy on the hot takes and openly talked about hating gambling. He'll have no problem IMO finding a new landing spot.

Big money (seven figures), protective of his time, non-athlete, only does one sport, doesn't drive engagement despite being the best basketball writer on the planet.

It's the state of the world now. People want ignorant shyt.

 

[iamduval]

Lower is their best NBA guy. Smh. Sad day

I bet Amazon or nbc drops the bag

 

[Bigwhite2498]

So stupid but they’ll pay Stephen a 25 million to scream on tv Shannon probably makes like 5 million plus to show up two days a week. The quality is so terrible there now

 

[<<TheStandard>>]

So stupid but they’ll pay Stephen a 25 million to scream on tv Shannon probably makes like 5 million plus to show up two days a week. The quality is so terrible there now

One thing that was so fascinating for me was seeing Stephen A Smith at the Super Bowl on radio row. He was a legit STAR, like had a bodyguard……you could barely get a moment with him because everyone wanted to speak to him. Like he’s really THAT BUL. He's worth every penny that he wants from ESPN.

As much as us hardcore basketball fans like Zach Lowe, the average fan wants what Stephen A and Skip Bayless bring to the table.

 

[Bigwhite2498]

One thing that was so fascinating for me was seeing Stephen A Smith at the Super Bowl on radio row. He was a legit STAR, like had a bodyguard……you could barely get a moment with him because everyone wanted to speak to him. Like he’s really THAT BUL. He's worth every penny that he wants from ESPN.

As much as us hardcore basketball fans like Zach Lowe, the average fan wants what Stephen A and Skip Bayless bring to the table.

I understand breh but then don’t call yourself a reputable news and journalists company yk what I mean

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

I understand breh but then don’t call yourself a reputable news and journalists company yk what I mean

Man, ESPN aint been that since Disney bought 'em

 

[Rev]

I wonder if things like this could mean ESPN will eventually take over NFL Network’s studio show content. Can’t find the thread but there was the rumor of the NFL investing in ESPN at the top of the year, which would include NFL Media, the network, etc.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

I wonder if things like this could mean ESPN will eventually take over NFL Network’s studio show content. Can’t find the thread but there was the rumor of the NFL investing in ESPN at the top of the year, which would include NFL Media, the network, etc.

IIRC, I think that plan is dead for the time being.

 

[Legal]

I wonder if things like this could mean ESPN will eventually take over NFL Network’s studio show content. Can’t find the thread but there was the rumor of the NFL investing in ESPN at the top of the year, which would include NFL Media, the network, etc.

Yeah, originally the NFL was basically going to sell off NFL Media to Disney for equity in ESPN. For obvious reasons, there were concerns, and last worf was that the plan was dead. But the NFL has gone pretty far down the road of stripping the network down to the studs, so you're going to see more arrangements like this to make it slightly less obvious that the NFL would really like to not own a network anymore.

 

[Morethan1]

 

[mastermind]

ESPN is really done with basketball outside of game production

 

[Rev]

ESPN is really done with basketball outside of game production

impossible with the new deal after this season.

feels like they're doing an overhaul of the coverage and more is at play...hopefully.

 

[mastermind]

impossible with the new deal after this season.

feels like they're doing an overhaul of the coverage and more is at play...hopefully.

idk man.

The best I can see them doing is either hiring athletes for hot takes and eschewing professional journalists, or making a longer pregame show. All of the other hoop content seems dead.

 

[mozichrome]

I wonder if things like this could mean ESPN will eventually take over NFL Network’s studio show content. Can’t find the thread but there was the rumor of the NFL investing in ESPN at the top of the year, which would include NFL Media, the network, etc.

wonder how this will work. he's going to do College Gameday on Saturday from whatever location. then do NFL Network stuff in studio or remote

 

[Belize King]

ESPN is really done with basketball outside of game production

I’m thinking about it now. How many people read articles?

All I do is read. I remember when fox sports moved to the video format years ago, I stopped going to their site. I haven’t been on in 4 years and that was my second go to sports site. Same with the bleacher report. SI.com was behind a paywall which I think they stopped. Now on ESPN all you see are videos and thumbnails of people with the scream face.

ESPN+ has good content but that’s behind a paywall. Never been on the athletic but that seems to have great content.

Is sport journalism dead? Print is dead? Now podcasts and short videos are the new wave? The analytics say there’s no return on beat writers when people only read tweets and not articles?

Hopefully Zach finds his lane.