![]() Mike Freeman, senior writer, Bleacher Report, author, ESPN: The Uncensored History: Now that’s a way to get a better narrative, not that it will ever happen. ![]() Let Bayless go to Fox, save a few million bucks and use that to bring back 30 or so of the behind-the-scenes people who were laid off. But viewers eventually tire and tune out the insincere and phony. As for the antagonism aspect, there are replacement-level trolls who will work for much cheaper than Skip Bayless. As a New England proxy here, I’m fascinated to see whether ESPN dedicates the resources to the Peyton Manning/HGH story as it did Tom Brady and Deflategate-whether it investigates it as deeply (get on this, Don Van Natta), whether it seeks the truth or supports Roger Goodell’s version of the truth and whether it accountably acknowledges and corrects its mistakes should there be reporting missteps along the way, as there were with Deflategate. ![]() (Amazingly, this went on even after he moved on.) It’s not a quick fix, but there are obvious routes to progress and improving its image, starting with more transparency and less deliberate antagonism. The way the Grantland disbanding went down came across as petty, with a supremely talented staff ending up as collateral damage in management’s chronic attempt to teach Bill Simmons who’s boss. But the optics were horrible-it looked like and was a bloodletting of the hard-working and dedicated behind-the-scenes people, with the famous and highly compensated mostly spared. There were legitimate reasons why ESPN, per Disney orders, laid off more than 300 people, starting with the drip-drip-drip of lost cable subscribers juxtaposed against the enormous rights fees it is paying for live sports. It’s going to be very difficult for ESPN to repair its image in a single year-that’s how disastrous 2015 was to the perception of the network. The selling point can’t be nebulous buzzwords, expensive sets, and a second decade of PTI.Ĭhad Finn, sports columnist, Boston Globe: ESPN’s business model will transition from strong-arming cable providers to offering a core audience a prestige (and much pricier) product. Branded SportsCenters have had little impact. Another challenge, for 2016 and beyond, will be reinventing non-live sports programming. Sports Illustrated Media Awards: The best and worst of 2015 Doing so would go a long way within and outside the industry. ESPN remains one of the few places with the resources to do it well across multiple media. Pointed, critical reporting, from Outside the Lines, the Undefeated or elsewhere would build credibility, drive discussions, and offset a lot of the outright shilling. ESPN nuked Grantland it shed most of its strong voices. I think ESPN should focus on quality investigative journalism. On this note, I asked 10 current or former sports media reporters to offer some thoughts on what ESPN should focus on in 2016. Even if you disagree with him-and I certainly do on Grantland and building mornings around Skip Bayless-he remains among the company’s most thoughtful spokespeople. One immediate suggestion would be to get president John Skipper out in front of press more. But ESPN, whether network officials want to admit or not, needs to turn its external PR around in 2016. ![]() Of course, even after an Annus horribilis, neither Fox Sports nor any of ESPN’s other competitors have closed the perception (or ratings) gap regarding who the most dominant media player in sports is. Smith has become the on-air face of the company), an NFL reporter exhibiting an embarrassing display of entitlement off hours at a parking garage, an acrimonious split with Bill Simmons, a continuing inflexibility when it comes to institutional attribution of other outlets and on and on and on. There were the layoffs, the cancelation of millions of cable subscriptions (“cord cutters”), a decline in SportsCenter and NFL ratings, the shuttering of Grantland just months after pledging long-term commitment, a region (New England), at least anecdotally, that no longer trusts the network’s reporting, the still-awaited launch of The Undefeated, high-profile talent suspensions, company personalities threatening NBA MVPs, the First Take-ization of content beyond that show (Stephen A. But the company’s narrative for 2015 was decidedly awful. ESPN remains the dominant media player in sports and will be so for some time. “And that was never the narrative, nor the reality here." “We’re just another company now,” the longtime ESPN-er told me that week.
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