i mean there are third party sites that estimate traffic but they are xtremely unreliable
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 14:56 (eight years ago) link
tho i wonder if any of those companies that actually rely on web traffic wld given him a new grantland considering his anti traffic stance, maybe fusion is the wave they dont care and they have tv
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 14:58 (eight years ago) link
but they r ~post text~ lol
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 15:01 (eight years ago) link
find myself in the unanticipated position of realizing i quite like grantland and that even tho i didn't read his stuff it probably won't be as good without simmons if it does survive at all
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 8 May 2015 15:04 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHaMV_eXko
― slothroprhymes, Friday, 8 May 2015 15:12 (eight years ago) link
guess espn is all-in on whitlock now amirite
― mookieproof, Friday, 8 May 2015 15:13 (eight years ago) link
kinda doubt they care too much abt all these sites, theyre so minuscule compared to their tv business, theyre just messing around hoping to find some sort of hit
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 15:16 (eight years ago) link
wonder whats gonna happen when nate silvers contract is up lol
hope he timed that for an election cycle when he should have no trouble finding other work
― head clowning instructor (art), Friday, 8 May 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link
― lag∞n, Friday, May 8, 2015 11:16 AM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Ha the worldwide leader is 100% about "fit" so my guess is peace out best of luck
― juice college (agent hibachi), Friday, 8 May 2015 15:59 (eight years ago) link
I'm totally unsurprised by this and also weirdly interested to see what Simmons does
My best guess is someone will pony up a ton of cash for a regular weekly column just for the name (yahoo? Deadspin would be hilarious) and otherwise he might hole up and write another book? He kinda seems to hate that process tho
I bet someone else will give him a modest blank check to exec produce another 30 for 30 type series, maybe fox or nbc for their sports networks, best bet I would guess wld be Netflix. I imagine it would be much more occasional and more like the bigger movie type ones they did like the U and fab 5' so prob just a couple a year. He may not care enough to do it at all tho
― juice college (agent hibachi), Friday, 8 May 2015 16:03 (eight years ago) link
i remember reading him being frustrated w/ espn's inability to monetize podcasts, that the internet was something they just paid very little attention to in general (and he understood why) but that he had seen you could make more money than what espn was doing w/ it so short of an espn competitor making a godfather offer i would not be surprised at all if w/ podcasts at least he went some route w/ carolla and kimmel. he's definitely seemed much more interested in doing video/tv type stuff though so nbc or fox could be possible, that would be much more difficult/risky to pull off independently. i wonder if espn will do any kind of blackout w/ him down the stretch the way they did w/ dan patrick.
― balls, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:17 (eight years ago) link
i don't think simmons is gonna go to another media org. i bet he either takes vc money and builds out his own thing or does something with, like, hbo.
― J0rdan S., Friday, 8 May 2015 16:37 (eight years ago) link
"media org" i mean news media org, esp website
i don't think he cares that much about writing anymore
― J0rdan S., Friday, 8 May 2015 16:38 (eight years ago) link
ya sounds about right one of those weekly hbo civilized sports talk shows that no one watches, produce an occasional documentary, prob get bored and start blogging
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:43 (eight years ago) link
yeah his writing has been pretty much about maintaining his brand for awhile. big lead speculates it pretty much came down to money and espn thinking if they devote this much money to keeping simmons then what are they gonna have to do to keep real revenue generators like (wait for it) skip bayless and colin cowherd?
― balls, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:44 (eight years ago) link
it also seems like they just hate him and felt like showing him that he actually matters not at all to what they do which is true
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:46 (eight years ago) link
like if hes gonna obnoxiously insult their corporate partners and them then whats the point espn is for showing the nfl not for bill simmons
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:47 (eight years ago) link
i mean i doubt skip bayless or colin cowherd matter to them either
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:48 (eight years ago) link
he shd go to the nytimes.com lol
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:49 (eight years ago) link
cowherd generates serious revenue though, i'm not sure if he's dumb enough to think it's because he's great and he could just pick up and do that elsewhere. dan patrick had that remark about 'espn muscles' when cowherd attacked him.
― balls, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:52 (eight years ago) link
espn makes its money from broadcasting sports fullstop
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:54 (eight years ago) link
the personalities are replaceable
i mean im sure the ppl who run the divisions in which the personalities work wldnt look at it that way but ultimately the reason they can charge cable companies as much in carriage fees as all the the other networks combined is because they have live sports
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 16:56 (eight years ago) link
It’s rumored that Simmons made $3 million per year. If that’s true, he was severely underpaid per his return on investment.
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 16:57 (eight years ago) link
(However, I was just reminded that he earns royalties from 30 for 30.)
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:00 (eight years ago) link
curious how ur calculating the simmons roi
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:03 (eight years ago) link
ad rates
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:08 (eight years ago) link
the cost are like way more than his $3m a/year tho, also no one knows how many impressions/views/etc hes producing across all the platforms
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:10 (eight years ago) link
the cost are like way more than his $3m a/year tho
Sure. However, the costs are insignificant. Moreover, they are spread across groups.
also no one knows how many impressions/views/etc hes producing across all the platforms
They (Grantland, podcasts, and television) are very estimable.
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link
idk man i dont think its a coincidence that most ppl dont get simmons type money or their own fiefdoms and espn were fine with letting him walk, i mean how many of those views were simmons views and how many were espn views
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:17 (eight years ago) link
Andrew Golis @agolis 5m5 minutes agoI'm calling it now: Bill Simmons, first Editor In Chief of Snapchat.
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:19 (eight years ago) link
anon espn insider reactions http://deadspin.com/espners-bill-simmons-found-out-he-was-fired-on-twitter-1703112625
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:20 (eight years ago) link
i dont think its a coincidence that most ppl dont get simmons type money or their own fiefdoms and espn were fine with letting him walk
Sure. A lot of people are underpaid. ESPN ad revenues were $3.9 billion in 2014. Money wasn’t the issue.
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:21 (eight years ago) link
i agree that ultimately its small change to them but there does seem to be some dynamic of them rolling out the red carpet for him and he still wldnt be a team player, and obvs from a marxist perspective everyone at espn is prob underpaid
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:23 (eight years ago) link
but from a capitalist perspective i kinda doubt he was
Fair. (And everyone is underpaid except John Skipper. He makes $5 million per year and an addition $10-15 million in stock!)
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:25 (eight years ago) link
Really? You think he’ll make less than $3 million in his next position?
naw hell prob make the same or more from some thirsty startfucking company, still doesnt make it good business, like has katie courics contract paid off for yahoo prob not
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:27 (eight years ago) link
(And everyone is underpaid except John Skipper. He makes $5 million per year and an addition $10-15 million in stock!)
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, May 8, 2015 1:25 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
btw i am willing to do that job for only $4m a year +stock espn call me
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:28 (eight years ago) link
—“Ding Dong the witch is dead.” (That’s how one ESPN staffer describes the vibe in Bristol.)
lol if espn thinks that bill simmons out of all their personalities is the fuckin wicked witch there's...quite a lot wrong with that network
― slothroprhymes, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
http://sports.genius.com/
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 May 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
LOL @ http://sports.genius.com/ is actually a thing on the internet.
lmao wld be interested in rubbernecking that marriage tbh
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 17:30 (eight years ago) link
― slothroprhymes, Friday, May 8, 2015 1:29 PM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ya it is clearly a post apocalyptic hellscape
was gonna say genius seems a good fit, let's see
― “audience participation” otherwise known as “touching” (forksclovetofu), Friday, 8 May 2015 18:08 (eight years ago) link
man i blinked and missed rap genius exploding, i knew they broadened to like lyrics in general or w/e but i had no idea they were doing sports and shit thats kinda scary
― slothroprhymes, Friday, 8 May 2015 18:24 (eight years ago) link
trying to reach escape velocity from the seo wasteland
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 18:26 (eight years ago) link
Christopher Hayes @chrislhayes 20s20 seconds ago Manhattan, NYESPN brass showing a surprising degree of confidence that @BillSimmons isn't going to proceed to tell the world every one of their secrets.
best possible outcome is a 50k word multipart tell all hit piece
― lag∞n, Friday, 8 May 2015 18:45 (eight years ago) link
spread over 500 genius annotations of course