OT: ESPN Layoffs Have Begun
This was percolating for a while, but ESPN announced today it's laying off what is reportedly close to 100 people, including quite a few on-air and digital notables, which so far include NFL reporter Ed Werder and NHL columnist Scott Burnside (these are the only two that I saw tweet about their loss of job as of this posting...those laid off are tweeting them out when they get the call).
John Skipper has just sent memo to all @espn employees. Layoffs announced today. Around 50 names you will recognize; another 50 you may not.
— jamesmiller (@JimMiller) April 26, 2017
ESPN UPDATE: I have multiple sources at ESPN telling me they expect the number of layoffs to be closer to 100 people than 70. Awful news.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 26, 2017
After 17 years reporting on #NFL, I've been informed that I'm being laid off by ESPN effective immediately. I have no plans to retire
— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) April 26, 2017
After 13 years of sticks and pucks can share that as of today my tenure at ESPN is at a close. I look forward to the next adventure.
— Scott Burnside (@OvertimeScottB) April 26, 2017
April 26th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
And to be fair to ESPN. What sports exactly would they be showing between 11 AM and 6 PM that people would tune into? It's not like if you turn to ESPN between 7 and 11 PM you're going to find talking heads yelling at you (unless it's NFL pregame talking heads).
A lot of us fondly remember an ESPN that showed things like world's strongest man, lumberjack competitions, and odd european sports during the day. But be honest, do you think the audience for those shows was so large that going to talking heads has cost the company money?
Maybe you could argue that Sportscenter lost its way going from tons of highlights to too much talking heads. But that's also an MTV scenario. Why wait around for ESPN to get to the highlight package you're looking for when you can just pull it up on your phone?
ESPN had to adjust with the times, and what they came up with is extremely annoying, but probably far more profitable than any alternative. ESPN's main problem is being the chief dependant on a cable bundling system that is slowly dying.
April 26th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
It is still early, but ESPN has cut two of their 5 B1G reporters so far. I wonder if ESPN's coverage will tilt toward the SEC and ACC due to their investment in their conference networks.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
All of the B1G writers except Dan Murphy have been fired.
It wasn't already tilted in that direction? The only question is whether any of the lapdog SWC/ACC writers will be ex'd...
Edit: SWC... SEC... Not much difference...
April 26th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
ESPN when Michigan is on or sometimes some other college sports but They got to SEC oriented for me and stopped watching them after that...the gushing and promoting of SEC really tiurned me off
April 26th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^
Brett McMurphy is out at ESPN. He was probably their best college football reporter in terms of breaking news.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
How the hell is McMurphy out of a job, while Joe Schad is still employed. I have never seen him break a story, at least one that is correct, adn he always offers a regurgitated, vanilla take on any story he covers. Completely worthless, and it is even more obvious as people like McMurphy get the ax.
Joe Schad left ESPN almost a year ago. He's now a Dolphins beat reporter for the Palm Beach Post.
Are you sure you're not watching ESPN Classic?
April 26th, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
BeIn has gotten better over the past year but I wouldn't say I'm impressed with their production value.
NBC's coverage of the Premier League is fantastic. I wish NBC had bid on the World Cup. I'm nervous Fox will screw it up. Their coverage of the Bundesliga, Champions League and MLS is awful.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^
Pete finebaum
Jemele
Stephen A
Mike golic
Kanell
Herbstreet
Van pelt
I'd be happy w those departures
April 26th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^
Herbstreet is not the buckeye to ditch. It's Galloway.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
April 26th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
I think Golic is starting to get annoying.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
You like Danny Kannell? Tells me all I need to know about you...
I don't get how anyone could like that turd.
Kanell's not "refreshingly direct." He tries to create shitstorms when there's no reason for a shitstorm. He offers precisely zero in the way of actual information or analysis.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
I miss waking up on Saturday mornings as a kid and having my Dad make me breakfast. We would watch Sportscenter with the likes of Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Kenny Mayne and Stuart Scott. We would watch for an hour and see every highlight from all major sports being played at the time. That's all I needed, that 1 hour of highlights and I was up to date on everything in sports. Now I turn Sportscenter on while making breakfast and it's 15 minutes of Draymond Green talking about how the Earth is flat and a round table of three analysts breaking down what he said. Terrible.
Edit: Meant to be reply to thread.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^
it lost hundreds to thousands of viewers when they quit focusing on highlites and went to the constant talking drivel about the most inane non-sensical things.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:12 PM ^
millions.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^
But based on Twitter responses, they had Lavar Ball on again doing bench presses or something else stupid. At some point, they'll realize people tune in for sports, not individual personalities.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
They lost me with the perma-Favre retirement coverage. I couldn't take it anymore and haven't watched much other than live sports since then.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^
weened off the ESPN products by then but I tuned in to watch Sportscenter once a day, the Favre saga did it for me to.
So far other than Ed Werder I have no idea who any of the people who've been laid off are or what they did for ESPN. An ignorance is bliss kind of thing.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
I went to ESPN.com to get updates on this and nothing.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
This is what you want: http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091
April 26th, 2017 at 12:11 PM ^
people dont want to see 4-5 shows of so called "experts" bitch at eachother for an hour? Hmm weird. Fire those clowns not people like Pierre LeBrun...who actually says meaningful shit.
Just go back to ESPN and ESPN 2 call it a day.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
Here's my plan to fix you:
1) Show extended highlights of games during sports center.
2) Cut down to three Channels: ESPN, ESPNNews/Classic, and ESPN GameTime (that only shows games and replays of games).
3) Tell your business people to F*ck off. SEC fans are already going to be watching for the network; rest of the country is turned off by the constant fawning over SEC athletics.
4) Offer people a streamable option that lets them see games and highlights- Basically, ESPN 3. I'd gladly pay 5 Bucks most months to catch a bunch of games.
5) Pick 6-7 sports center anchors that are really good writers and let them do their thing.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
I have a much better plan: Stop trying to be a disgusting combo of fucking TMZ and sports talk radio. The rest will fall into place.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
Looks like ESPN is essentially checking completely out of hockey coverage, and a lot of team-specific bloggers and reporters are getting the boot too. A picture of what ESPN thinks it should become is slowly being painted here, and it is an unwatchable picture, in my own opinion, or rather, moreso than it has already become.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
Many guys have made similar statement above but ESPN changed the direction of their programming from highlights to hot takes. Sport Center used to be highlight after highlight for an hour. Then the show would rerun. The afternoon lineup would be PTI and Around the Horn followed by a 6pm sportcenter that got you ready for the evenings matchups. Now it just feels like hot takes all the time. I guess they figure you can get your highlights on the interent. But there was always something awesome about an onslaught of highlights for an hour instead of fishing for them yourself. This time of year with NBA and NHL playoffs and MLB regular season, they literally should have 20+ games to get through. Instead they focus on hot takes which instantly turns off a segment of the viewing audience. Half may agree with the take and the other half not. No one disagrees with highlights! Last time I watched ESPN, they litterally had 5 LeBron James storries in the first 30 minutes and maybe two highlights. I couldn't take it and haven't turned it back on since.
They lost their purpose and direction for internet click bait. Like many of the rest of you, it is just live sports and college football coverage for me and even that trends to be unwatchabley SEC biased.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
Brian Bennett joins Austin Ward and Jesse Temple in the ESPN.com cuts. The only ESPN B1G reporter remaining is Dan Murphy. Technically, Adam Rittenberg is now a national college football reporter for ESPN.
And on the college basketball side, they axed Eamonn Brennan and Dana O'Neil who manned a lot of the B1G coverage.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^
Brennan used to write the Bubble Watch columns. Going to miss those.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^
Kanell is OUTTA HERE!
Talk shit, get slipped.
April 26th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^
Danny Kanell is gone. I'm not one to dance on people's graves, but this one just feels ... justified. The guy is a blow-hard hawtest of hawt takes type, and involuntary unemployment couldn't happen to a more deserving person (unless of course the sack Finebaum, then he is more deserving).
April 26th, 2017 at 12:52 PM ^
THE HOTTER THE TAKE
THE HARDER THEY FALL
SO LONG DANNY
April 26th, 2017 at 12:52 PM ^
April 26th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^
Poured my heart and soul into ESPN for last 8 years. Moved my wife and 3 kids to CT to go "all in" 5 years ago. Bummed it ended in 3 minutes
His is the most bitter-sounding yet. Can't blame him. Also, celebrating all of this is a bit unbecoming. His comments recently have been bullshit, I agree, but it's a sad day for many people based out of Bristol.
You may hate his work, but that just sucks.