WFNY Roundtable: Browns to hunt state bird of Ohio
October 30, 2015Cleveland Chainsaw Massacre: Miami Heat at Cleveland Cavaliers, Behind the Box Score
October 30, 2015This is not a traditional Cleveland-centric headline, but a public service announcement for those who haven’t already heard: Grantland is being shut down. ESPN’s statement on the matter:
Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland. After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.
Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun. We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent. Thanks to all the other writers, editors and staff who worked very hard to create content with an identifiable sensibility and consistent intelligence and quality. We also extend our thanks to Chris Connelly who stepped in to help us maintain the site these past five months as he returns to his prior role.
Despite this change, the legacy of smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms.
Everyone isn’t getting fired. Per Mike Soltys, VP of Corporate Communication at ESPN, all contracts will be honored. The sportswriters — not the pop culture ones, it seems; editors and staff also go unmentioned — may wind up in other sections of ESPN.
All Grantland writers will have their contracts honored. The intent is to use the sportswriters on other ESPN platforms.
— Mike Soltys (@espnmikes) October 30, 2015
For now, this is just a matter of notifying our own readership. We’ll have more personal reactions about this later. But as long as I’m typing, two of my cents:
For many of us at WFNY, Grantland was a daily must-read, a model to aspire to. I know that I have mentioned and referenced more than a handful of Grantland stories in my time here, and that I have been inspired by those who made that site what it was. It was Shea Serrano who showed me that silly writing is completely okay. It was Kirk Goldsberry’s shot charts that made statistical analysis easily digestible. It was David Shoemaker’s writing about wrestling that drew me back into WWE. It was Zach Lowe who taught me a whole, whole lot about the NBA, and whose reflections on the New York Mets inspired me to cry proud tears as I wrote about my favorite teams. There were a lot of interesting, talented writers working over there, and I went out of my way to read them more than I do for most.
More than that, it felt different than many websites. At risk of over-washing Grantland’s collective balls, it felt like a group of real friends in a way that few sites or media outlets do. Whether it was their actual writing, podcasts, or Twitter interactions, I felt like I knew those people, and I understood how they knew each other.
I suppose the past tense is a little too melancholy — no one has died, as far as I know. Hopefully the writers and editors and illustrators and staff will find new, worthy gigs, and soon. In the meantime, read what you can while the site is up, and I invite you all to share whatever fond memories you have.
Grantland is dead. Long live Grantland.
29 Comments
ESPN. Getting rid of quality work and keeping Brian Windhorst.
I was never really impressed by it and this is coming from a smart a__ too. For me it was just another example of how that network has continued to slide. Maybe they should just stick to broadcasting actual sporting events instead of trying to create sports themed talk shows.
I liked that Grantland existed. I didn’t read it religiously. I think a lot of the writers liked the sound of their own voice (words?) a bit more than I’d like. Still, sometimes it was great.
Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap. I came to it late in the game but read it every day, the very best in insightful sports writing miraculously separated by a quality firewall from the ESPN low-brow shiny dreck.
Crap.
You don’t have to like Brian Windhorst. You can be mad at him, but he’s pretty undeniably good at his job.
Possibly the worst take ever. Congrats.
“For many of us at WFNY, Grantland was a daily must-read, a model to aspire to.”
Amen, Will. So much running through my media nerd mind right now, but this is the crux.
nothing personal , but who needs grantland when you have WFNY ??
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh253/jimifunguzz/chuck-norris-punching-gif.gif
http://i.imgur.com/HCedj.gif
I honestly only come here for sports. I rarely bother with other sites.
I think Broussard is the real joke.
hi JM … same here.
WFNY for the Land-centric stuff, Grantland for the national stuff.
and besides , if you really want to read some well-written material , and learn a new word everyday , just read some of HARV’s posts.
Considering how much it supposedly cost to run vs. earned, it seemed inevitable.
Grantland was probably too cerebral for the typical mouth-breathing ESPN reader (judging by the comments). So, I understand if it didn’t get the traffic it needed to be profitable. That said, it did expose me to some really intelligent reporting on matters that weren’t always sports, and I always really appreciated that.
A big issue here, in my mind, is the advertisor (revenue generating) model. Page clicks still reign supreme despite efforts to have engagement matter. A site like Grantland with longform articles and no 25 page slideshows is at an inherent disadvantage in such a system.
My favorite G/L article:
http://grantland.com/one-hundred-years-arm-bars-gracie-jiu-jitsu-mma/
yes, that’s a fact. good reporting.
ESPN are just typical corp dirtbags. I had a # of friends lose jobs similarly last week. First and foremost, these are people’s lives that are changed. “Oh they’ll catch on somewhere….” Yeah, that’s not always the case. There’s people with kids in daycare, mortgages, etc.
ESPN is just a typical corporate trash company that’s a lot of what’s wrong these days.
I kinda think he’s coasting on previous reputation a little. He spends as much time speculating as reporting these days. He’s FAR from the worst writer at the mothership, though.
Grantland was the *ahem* second best sports site out there. I wondered what might happen when Simmons left, and now we know. Sad…
“A site like Grantland with longform articles and no 25 page slideshows is at an inherent disadvantage in such a system.”
So much sadness in this sentence.
like Russell replied I’m stunned that a mom can profit $8748 in a few weeks on the internet. pop over to this website on `my` `prof1Ie`
$2334e
I followed Grantland everyday as they ran the gamut from sports to tv and music. Writers like Zach Lowe and Andy Greenwald were two of my favorites. Disappointed in ESPN shutting it down but you had to know this was coming eventually after the Bill Simmons saga. Just another way they are trying to stick it to him.
I really disagree. Windy’s knowledge of the ins and outs of NBA transactions, especially the salary cap, is second to none. I always learn something new when listening to him or reading his articles.
I know.