ESPN Layoffs

[seawolf17]

Major bloodletting at ESPN today: http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091

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[Edgy MD]

Somehow, I thought Stark would get passed over.

[seawolf17]

You'd have to go back not one, not five, but SEVENTEEN years to find an article by him that wasn't exactly the same as the last one.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Stark was and is great. I used to read him in the Sunday Philly Inquirer when I lived there, a million years ago. His "Rumblings & Grumblings" where he ran down the goofy stats (last guy to get a hit, etc), was a big influence on the uni-number project I did.

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Stark was and is great. I used to read him in the Sunday Philly Inquirer when I lived there, a million years ago. His "Rumblings & Grumblings" where he ran down the goofy stats (last guy to get a hit, etc), was a big influence on the uni-number project I did.

I joke, but I enjoyed those columns too. I love little statistical tidbits like that.

[G-Fafif]

One would figure the whole idea of having Jayson Stark is to keep Jayson Stark.

Also gone from ESPN MLB coverage, thus far, are Mark Saxon and Jim Bowden. Richard Deitsch, who's been following the bloodletting for SI, reports ESPN may "outsource" its studio baseball shows from MLBN. So much for worldwide leading this sport.

[Frayed Knot]

One thing I've noticed over the last, oh maybe six months or so, is that ESPN-related gossip has become a major staple of websites. And it goes beyond just the speculation of these impending layoffs, which
has more to do with cord-cutters cutting into their seemingly ever-upward pointing profit margins, but including also stories of personal feuds and intra-office sniping, or the two-way trash talk involving those
who recently left on their own, etc.
The locals papers have long done that sort of stuff with WFAN (particularly if it involved Russo and/or Francesa) but dishing on the behind the scenes from Bristol, CT was unheard of until recently at which
point it suddenly seemed like it was all over the place.

[Fman99]

We live in a nation of busybodies, tattletales, and assorted other lifeless wonders. Do your thing and let others do theirs. People in that racket are all parasites.

[Frayed Knot]

Oh I agree, I just found it strange how, in addition to the usual suspects of Hollywood and Washington, the gossip mongerers, even those not normally concerned with sports, suddenly had their crosshairs trained
on the backroom machinations from Bristol Freakin' Connecticut.

[Edgy MD]

Pop will eat itself.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Disney should have spun off ESPN like four years ago. If Mickey was
still in charge, they would have...

[Edgy MD]

Last I checked it was Dizz's biggest property. Marvel and Star Wars and stuff may have displaced it, but it's still a cash cow with a long-assed tail.

ESPN.com, on the other hand, is probably more valuable as a landing place for a brand than as a quality product all on it's own.

It's blocked at work for me. The only other non-porn sites I can think of that are blocked are a few dating sites. I wonder if the number of companies blocking them particularly hurt their bottom line.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: Last I checked it was Dizz's biggest property. Marvel and Star Wars and stuff may have displaced it, but it's still a cash cow with a long-assed tail.

Right, and always buy the spun-off company because it's the best on it's own.
It'd been talked about for years, just never happened for whatever reason.

[metirish]

In Depth report on the layoffs

http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/26/the-real-story-behind-espns-wednesday-massacre/

agree on Starks , excellent to follow online etc.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Somehow, I thought Stark would get passed over.

Is Gammons still there or has he been put out to pasture already? If he's still there I would have canned him instead of Stark.
OE, he's still there. (sigh)

Later

[nymr83]

Stark and maybe Ed Werder the only real surprises on that list - many are people who report on sports that barely anyone follows, ex-athletes/execs whose 5 minutes are over, etc

[nymr83]

metirish wrote: In Depth report on the layoffs http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/26/the-real-story-behind-espns-wednesday-massacre/ agree on Starks , excellent to follow online etc.

article is spot on.

[Frayed Knot]

Yup.

This passage in particular -- The near-universal sentiment of former ESPN addicts I’ve spoken to is that the content provider sidelined actual sports in favor of carnival barkers. Sure, you clicked over to ESPN to watch sports, but what you’re actually going to get are “Crossfire”-esque segments of non-athletes making dumb arguments about topics you don’t care about. -- mirrors what I've been saying about the Sunday Night Baseball package for a while now; that while you may be under the impression that you've tuned in to watch a baseball game, they're downright positive that you tuned in to see how ESPN presents a baseball game and at all the bells, whistles, gimmicks, and promos they can tack on to it. And if it comes down to showing the gimmicks vs showing the game, well shit, that's an obvious choice for them even if not quite so obvious to you or me.

[nymr83]

yup, the politics too. they just don't get it - people don't tune into sports for politics!

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe I just don't tune in enough to hear political talk on the Four-Letter network, that was the one part of that piece that I didn't really get.
I mean, sure they go all politically correct on issues (although who in the media doesn't?) and the corporate part of the empire probably swung too far in the other direction in trying to make up for the
frat-house antics of their early days -- like the tennis announcer who recently got canned for saying Serena employed 'guerilla' tactics in her match because it sounded too much like he was calling her a
'gorilla' and therefore must be a card-carrying racist.



But the obvious biggest problem is the rights fees.
They pay more money to the NFL than any other network even though they just get the one game per week -- and often the bottom of the barrel game at that -- because what they're really paying for is
the rights to game films that they can then spend 12 hours per day dissecting on their regular weekday shows. Except how many unemployed sports fans must there be to goose up the ratings for mid-
week/mid-day programming to make that strategy work?
And they've just like tripled the amount of money they'll be shoveling to the NBA in a contract that I'm not even sure has begun yet even though the good teams pretty much clinch playoff spots by
Thanksgiving, the shitty teams are eliminated by Christmas and now openly admit that they're trying to suck, and there's only so many times you can show LeBron and Curry on your national telecast
even while you're hoping that their coach won't go all wholesale 'resting' of his starting lineup. It's like they've taken a page from the three-letter network playbook where overpaying for sports is considered
OK because it's good for the network's prestige and visibility and so you'll wind up making it up the difference in ratings elsewhere. But a business model where you lose money buying sports doesn't seem
like a good idea when you're a network that exists only to show sports.

[Edgy MD]

There's a theory out there, though, that the total $$ of these salaries shed won't really cut meaningfully into their obligations owed to the leagues for these rights, and what they're really doing is about symbolic austerity, trying to keep investors from bailing by demonstrating that they can make the hard cuts now to guarantee profit$ down the road.

[bmfc1]

From the baseball side, Dallas Braden, Doug Glanville and Raul Ibanez, too. Braden was prominently featured on a recent Sunday night game but now they can live without him.

[seawolf17]

bmfc1 wrote: From the baseball side, Dallas Braden, Doug Glanville and Raul Ibanez, too. Braden was prominently featured on a recent Sunday night game but now they can live without him.

Read that as "Dallas Green" at first and thought, "well, that's nice, considering he's already dead."

[G-Fafif]

Whoa, Jim Caple is among the axed. A brilliant writer -- as if that would make a difference.

[Edgy MD]

A lot of brilliant writers looking for work in 2017, in a world where we all give it away for free, and half-baked guys get the clicks.

I know there's an answer. I know now but I have to find it by myself.

[G-Fafif]

ESPN2 will simulcast MLBN's worst program, "Intentional Talk," the one with Kevin Millar and Chris Rose.

[HahnSolo]

G-Fafif wrote: ESPN2 will simulcast MLBN's worst program, "Intentional Talk," the one with Kevin Millar and Chris Rose.

Two idiots who yell a lot. Fits right in with ESPN's programming model.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Is there a complete list of the beheaded? I was thinking yesterday about the
notion that these networks need 5-6 guys doing pre-post-during NFL 'analysis'
and what a waste of time and money (and brain cells) it is.

[Frayed Knot]

HahnSolo wrote: Two idiots who yell a lot. Fits right in with ESPN's programming model.

I once heard that type of show described as 'Facts vs Volume', which is just plain perfect.

[bmfc1]

G-Fafif wrote: ESPN2 will simulcast MLBN's worst program, "Intentional Talk," the one with Kevin Millar and Chris Rose.

Now I will have to avoid this awful show on two channels.