Writers Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, Sean Fennessey and Juliet Litman resigned to join Simmons in his still unknown endeavor, film critic Wesley Morris left for the New York Times, and Grantland co-founder Dan Fierman left to join MTV News.
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“Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun”, the ESPN statement continued.
Throughout the six months of turbulence since Simmons left, the future of Grantland has loomed over the site and its employees.
In May, it was announced that ESPN would not be renewing Simmons’ contract, and Chris Connelly was appointed interim editor-in-chief. It was a flawless fit: HBO did not have any close ties with any of the sports leagues-especially the NFL, whose commissioner Simmons was highly critical of-and their status as a “premium” outlet granted Simmons the editorial and creative freedom he desired.
Per James Andrew Miller, who has written extensively about ESPN, all Grantland writers will have their contracts honored by ESPN and will be used on the network’s other platforms. Simmons’ divorce with ESPN came after he frequently clashed with the channel’s higher-ups. Now, Grantland’s fans will lament that while there are plenty of blogs trafficking in the sports/pop culture, none does it as well or with as much talent. He served as editor-in-chief until leaving ESPN earlier this year.
It’s stunning to think that ESPN would suspend the publication of Grantland after everything that had been invested in the site.
Numerous site’s writers stated that they found out they’d been laid off only when they saw the network’s tweets about the site being suspended.
Being in the culture-crit business was an experiment for ESPN, and it’s hard to miss that element’s absence from the statement’s promise to continue “smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content”.
One Grantland freelancer said he only heard about the decision on social media.
ESPN recently began a round of layoffs that will trim more than 300 jobs.
That goes quadruply so when your site pays writers a premium and sends them to expensive spots to do their work. “We just had this tiny little hyperlink at the bottom of the ESPN Mobile site”.
Excellent sports publication Grantland closed its doors suddenly on Friday, the site’s parent company ESPN announced.
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An ESPN spokeswoman said the company remains “totally committed” to two of its other digital offshoots, FiveThirtyEight and The Undefeated.
