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ESPN cuts to 100 on-air personalities happening today

tboyer said:
It is a little like newspapers (which employed me and put my kids through college). A lot of really smart people were employed as journalists because newspapers had a monopoly (in most markets) on print ads. If you wanted people to see your new widget, or piece of clothing, or your new movie, your new car model, ANYTHING -- the local newspaper and TV was the only game in town. Readers appreciated the content that journalists provided, but it was advertisers who paid the bills. When the web came along that business model fell apart.

ESPN has been financially insulated by cable bundling but that is all coming apart -- and if anything, the paradigm shift coming to TV is going to happen even faster than the decline of newspapers.

Ironically, I think ESPN is right to invest in sports event rights. It's content you can't get anywhere else. If they have exclusive rights to NFL on Thursdays, then if you're bored and you can't think of anything better to do on Thursdays, you'll tune in even if they are terrible games. It's a business. But the problem is ESPN overpaid for it, not knowing how to value it. And that creates a cash flow problem for them right now. You lose $100 million PER NFL game, as some suggest happened, well pretty soon you've lost real money.

But all of ESPN's commentary and even some of their really good journalism -- Jayson Stark is a great example -- it's just not worth that much. People don't pay for content on the web except in niche things like rivals sites for recruiting content -- and even then they don't pay a whole lot.
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Since this thread is about people getting laid off and you mentioned newspapers it reminded me of this sad but awesome song about the last day at work for a guy that worked at the newspaper for 25 years and got laid off.

And I'm sorry Mister Jones...it's...time.

 
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yamrick22 said:
Its tough for sure. I had a talk with the president of my previous company on a Friday. Talked for 2 hours about sports and my new apartment that I just signed the lease for. My phone rang at 9 am on Saturday morning for him to tell me that they laid me off.

I showed up Monday morning to collect my things, and the VP had the nerve to say "why didn't you make it in Sunday to get your stuff?"..

4.5 months later I landed my current gig, and it could not have turned out better. Been here for almost 2 years now, and they couldn't offer me enough to go back...
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Had a similar thing, actually.

The layoff happened in late January several years ago. The preceding August, the COO "made a visit" to our office. He was a "nice guy", took us out for lunch, etc. He and I struck up a conversation about golfing.

I bragged, jokingly, about winning a long drive competition at a tournament (I actually did, but brought it up in jest). Guy said he could hit it a long way too, and suggested going to the local driving range after work to see who was better. I hadn't swung a club in a couple years--so we had a drink or two, then went to the driving range. In the process I made a comment about not being able to get out much because of student loans, etc--and the guy was very encouraging.

After the layoffs, I came to find out with certainty that the reason for his visit was to negotiate a lease termination with the landlord. Things hadn't gone well with regards to the deal over the phone or online, so he came to town to negotiate in person.

Total slime ball.
 
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mjh218 said:
I get not liking ESPN. But it is definitely not something to root for since the people being let go have families. Many of the people being let go are lesser known and likely not paid boat loads of money. Never a good thing to have to deal with being let go (even if the company you work for is ESPN) and to not know when you will be getting your next paycheck.
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Agree, and it appears that they are letting go of the people who carried themselves in a respectable manner and did not have an obvious agenda. These were pretty professional people. ESPN is who we now have lately thought they were: a bunch of ill-informed, agenda-driven gas bags. The fact that Desmond Howard has survived speaks volumes.
 
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Diego Badman said:
Agree, and it appears that they are letting go of the people who carried themselves in a respectable manner and did not have an obvious agenda. These were pretty professional people. ESPN is who we now have lately thought they were: a bunch of ill-informed, agenda-driven gas bags. The fact that Desmond Howard has survived speaks volumes.
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Exactly--the people let go (Werder, Stark, Crabtree especially) were some of the last bastions of non-idiocy at the four-letter network.

We're now left with the Stephen Asswipe Smiths and Jemelle Hills of the world.
 
NewEra 2014 said:
Should be an interesting day. It appears that ESPN still doesn't get it, as they are touting the "success" of their dreadful 6 PM show in the press release.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/espn-will-cut-100-air-personalities-today-123057142.html
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Latest Link.
Ashley Fox, NFL reporter. Formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Not the biggest fan of alot of ladies covering sports but she was good. Not afraid to tell it like it is. Sent her a very nice email when she left the inquirer to go to ESPN.
 
kgilbert78 said:
Except that Cosell was far more competent than most of the yahoos these days...
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Jim Bouton said in his follow up book to Ball Four that when he worked at ABC, if Cosell was not around, word was he was out walking his pet rat.
 
kgilbert78 said:
I will say that I am a fan of Bob Ley--did a great job covering soccer when it was tough to do and not popular. I'm surprised he wasn't caught in the layoffs.
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ESPN as a whole doesn't have much "gravitas" ----- but Ley does. They need some in the current world where the likes of Stephen A Smith and Jemele Hill are network stars.

I don't know ESPN internal politics --- but I do think laying off Ley would have been tremendously unpopular in Bristol. He is literally the current longest-tenured employee at ESPN!

Both of those things mattered, IMO. Ley will probably work another 5-10 years, and be able to retire on his own terms.

That said, I'm a bit disappointed he used the words "leaving us." That's corporate mumbo-jumbo. ESPN/Disney has made the decision to "go forward without them." That's what lay-offs are.
 
The only person on the cut list so far that I am not sorry to see is Dilfer. But please add Desmond Howard to the list. Please.
 
michnittlion said:
ESPN as a whole doesn't have much "gravitas" ----- but Ley does. They need some in the current world where the likes of Stephen A Smith and Jemele Hill are network stars.

I don't know ESPN internal politics --- but I do think laying off Ley would have been tremendously unpopular in Bristol. He is literally the current longest-tenured employee at ESPN!

Both of those things mattered, IMO. Ley will probably work another 5-10 years, and be able to retire on his own terms.

That said, I'm a bit disappointed he used the words "leaving us." That's corporate mumbo-jumbo. ESPN/Disney has made the decision to "go forward without them." That's what lay-offs are.
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I think Ley has protected status like Berman - he has been there since day three - literally.
 
NewEra 2014 said:
Based on the names I am seeing, ESPN may have a reverse discrimination lawsuit on its hands if it isn't careful. Not that anyone would ever think of doing such a thing in today's society.
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Wait....white people can be discrimminated against?
 
NewEra 2014 said:
Based on the names I am seeing, ESPN may have a reverse discrimination lawsuit on its hands if it isn't careful. Not that anyone would ever think of doing such a thing in today's society.
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ESPN took notice to this and fired Len Elmore.
 
psuro said:
Wow. Now who will explain NASCAR to me ?

"Redneck drives fast and turns left." Repeat. As Nauseum.
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Punch also did a good job as a college football sideline reporter.

Whether you like NASCAR or not, Punch did a tremendous job covering it.
 
bwifan said:
They should just go back to Australian rules football in the afternoons. I was channel surfing about a month ago on a workday afternoon I was off that day. Those afternoon talk shows are putrid. I tried watching a couple of them and they are brutal. The one with 2 sports guys taking about that days news and some Cuban guy in the middle of them was the worst tv I have witnessed. I watch their afternoon shows for a total of about 2 minutes ... no wonder their ratings are down and cutting costs. Their programming is awful. Guys were smart jumping ship a few years ago to fox and getting off the sinking ship of espn.... while I don't like seeing people lose their jobs there are a few at espn if cut I will shed crocodile tears if they are cut ...
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My wife and kids care nothing about the sports shows i watch but they love Papi and Highly Questionable. I'm talking about recording it and watch it daily loyalty. They literally couldn't name five football players but listening to Dan and Bomani critique a Russian dash cam video or listening to Papi "rap" leaves them in stitches. Go figure.
 
psuro said:
BWI's list of "Who should be cut from ESPN"

Jemele Hill
Desmond Howard
Dan LeBatard
Dan LeBatard's dad
Stephen A. Smith
Any other black person except Stan Verret

Did I get that right so far?
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All except those doing NASCAR and Hockey coverage. OK, throw in the LPGA ones too.
 
psuro said:
And so does his dad.
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It's pretty bad when Bomani Jones is the most sensible of this trio.


dan-le-batard-highly-questionable.png
 
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