ESPN lays off Ed Werder day before the NFL draft

[siberian khatru]

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

And that's just the beginning of the bloodbath. Up to 100 ESPNers are expected to be axed, including a lot of on-air folks. So consider this the ESPN Layoffs Megathread to track all the victims.

ESPN should have marketed this. Could have turned it into like an episode of Hard Knocks. Who survives the cuts, who doesn't...

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 26, 2017

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

My political affiliation is on the side of the people who are claiming that ESPN has a political agenda so your assumption is incorrect.

The idea that the only reason that people offended by ESPN's political agenda when they fired Limbaugh in 2003 didn't stop consuming ESPN and significantly affect ESPN's bottom line is because they didn't have the available technology to pursue alternative options to ESPN confirms that changes in technology are primarily to blame for ESPN's current issues.

I'm afraid we're just speaking past each other here. You're arguing that the politics aren't relevant. I'm arguing that they're relevant in the 'who' comprises their viewer base and if they aren't rebounding to the extend they would like, it's absolutely because of those politics.

Let's say ESPN has a focus group of 100 people and of those 100 people, 30 are just going to fade away - full stop. This is pretty likely. So now ESPN is down to 70 and their choices are to try to keep all 70 at their current viewing patters or to appeal to some segment of that 70 more strongly.

In my estimation, ESPN chose the latter. They chose to make politics part of the platform and in so doing, they just flat out alienated another 20. Of the remaining 50, maybe 20 of them actually give a shit about the politics and the 30 in the middle are just people that are still watching based on nothing more than intertia.

I don't believe these choices happened in the last year - I believe they happened really about 4-5 years ago. And the 20 that care about the politics aren't doing enough to make up for the 20 that left because of the politics. And if they had, THIS round of layoffs may not have been necessary. Or at least not to this extent.

I believe you're of the mind that those same 50 viewers would've left either way and I just don't think that's correct. I think perhaps they'd have lost 50 viewers of some stripe no matter what direction they chose, but had they chose that direction better, they could've increased saturation over 1/2 those remaining viewers enough to cover some of the losses and they could've stemmed the tide by now.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Pearlman pegged it in that middle paragraph:



The 'embrace debate' shit isn't ESPN's fault as much as it's a market reaction. We, as a society, have gotten really goddamn stupid and have seemingly no interest in digesting content that is neutrally provided and then coming to our own conclusions.

Honestly, we're all guilty of it in a lot of areas. The problem is that an ever increasing percentage of us are becoming guilty of it in ALL areas. They're just completely averse to critical thinking and want people to give them the ideas that they can then select and incorporate in whatever conversations they have later. It's why reasonable disagreement is dead - because you have to actually have your OWN thoughts to hear someone else's, recognize the merit in them and still be able to say, dispassionately I will add, that they are wrong and that's fine.

If you have nothing but soundbite tripe to offer and someone disagrees with you, you have no foundation that you drew that soundbite tripe from. So do you retreat to that foundation, reformulate and engage on different lines? Nope - can't do that. Instead you just yell the soundbite LOUDER. And the other side's in the same boat so they yell back...louder. And around and around we go.

Pretty much.

[Beef Supreme]

It doesn't help ESPN that the reason a lot of people are cutting the cord is because getting ESPN in your cable package makes it cost a small fortune. **** them.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

It doesn't help ESPN that the reason a lot of people are cutting the cord is because getting ESPN in your cable package makes it cost a small fortune. **** them.

Per cable subscriber:

$7.21 for ESPN
$0.90 for ESPN2
$0.23 for ESPNU

$8.34 per month.

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat

Per cable subscriber:

$7.21 for ESPN
$0.90 for ESPN2
$0.23 for ESPNU

$8.34 per month.

They always bundle it with a bunch of worthless channels. So it added more like $30 bucks to your bill even if all you wanted was ESPN. And even it it was only $8 bucks a month, would you rather have just ESPN or just Netflix?

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

They always bundle it with a bunch of worthless channels. So it added more like $30 bucks to your bill even if all you wanted was ESPN. And even it it was only $8 bucks a month, would you rather have just ESPN or just Netflix?

Netflix.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah...I kind feel like he's missing my point here.

Eh, whatever. I'm sure somebody gets it.

I"m pretty sure everyone here but him gets your point.

[Marcellus]

Jason Stark got canned. I have to say that is surprising to me.

[Gravedigger]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

ESPN's problems have very little to do with having a "political agenda"... it has almost everything to do with cord cutting and the changing ways due to technology that people consume sports programming.

Yeah I think ESPN just went too big and couldn't keep it up. Expansion and hiring with gaudy budgets and salaries, then when the ratings aren't there you don't pump more money into an overinflated mess, you cut from it back to a level where it can sustain itself.

[siberian khatru]

"Welcome to SportsCenter... I'm your host, Lavar Ball... " ESPN

— Lance Emerson (@AengusDad) April 26, 2017

[FloridaMan88]

http://deadspin.com/espns-latest-lay...ime-1794678629

ESPN's Latest Layoffs Are Just A Way To Buy Time

The big ESPN layoffs that everyone knew were coming finally arrived today, and the culling has been as brutal as anyone could have expected. Though the final number isn’t in yet, various reports have around 100 people losing their jobs, and many of the people who have been fired so far aren’t just long-time, front-facing employees, but those who, like Jayson Stark and Jane McManus, represent what ESPN is at its best: wired, experienced, deeply knowledgable, enthusiastic.

The impetus behind these layoffs is not mysterious (and has nothing to do with the network’s purportedly liberal politics). ESPN has been hemorrhaging subscribers for some time now as a result of cord-cutting, which hurts them much more than other networks given that they charge vastly higher carriage fees. With ESPN having to pay billions of dollars to sports leagues for the right to broadcast the must-see live events that allow it to charge those fees, the network is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with the sudden decline in revenue that comes with the loss of 10 million subscribers over the course of three years.

And so today’s layoffs seem to follow a kind of logic: If ESPN is bleeding money from subscriber losses, they need to offset the damage by making cuts elsewhere in the company. That doesn’t, though, really follow, mathematically. Look at the people who have been laid off today. Sure, it’s possible that veterans like McManus and Stark and Ed Werder were carrying hefty salaries, but no amount of fired reporters and columnists is going to put even the tiniest dent in ESPN’s rights fees. Add up all the salaries of the people who lost their jobs today, and how much of a single Monday Night Football broadcast does it buy? Ten minutes? Fifteen?

So, then, what was the point? The memo released this morning by ESPN president John Skipper is instructive. It was hollow and buzzword-laden in the precise way that is meant to speak to Disney investors who want to be assured that ESPN is still capable of “navigating changes in technology and fan behavior in order to continue to deliver quality, breakthrough content.” That’s what today appears to have been really about—assuring Disney stakeholders that ESPN is taking things very seriously and is prepared to keep itself lean and competitive. Don’t think too much about how we’re going to continue to pay rights fees with sustained subscriber loss! We’re making cuts! We have a handle on things!

In the end, the real solution to ESPN’s problems will involve much more severe changes than were made today. Perhaps the network will work in closer partnership with leagues and even competitors; perhaps it will find a way to offload deals it can no longer afford; perhaps it will seek some way to simply outgrow its present structural issues, with aid and backing from Disney and even cable carriers who are quite aware of just how much their industry looks right now the way newspapering did 15 years ago. Whatever it is, it won’t have much to do with cuts that amount to rounding errors in the books.

And that’s the truly tragic thing about today’s layoffs, that those who lost their jobs were essentially symbolic sacrifices. ESPN may have bought itself a little more slack from investors today, but its future remains just as uncertain as it was yesterday. Meanwhile, good writers and reporters like Doug Padilla, Mike Goodman, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, and many others—people who were not on million-dollar contracts but nevertheless did quality work on important beats, providing the depth and texture that make the network something more than just a lot of branded content and screaming dullards—are jobless. A lot of good people lost their jobs today, and ESPN got a lot worse, and all of it was probably for no good reason.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by vailpass

I"m pretty sure everyone here but him gets your point.

Not so much...

http://deadspin.com/espns-latest-lay...ime-1794678629

[Rooster]

Originally Posted by Frazod

It just occurred to me, this is the most interest I've had regarding anything ESPN-related in years.

No shit me too.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Not so much...

http://deadspin.com/espns-latest-lay...ime-1794678629

Why stop at posting the same thing twice in a row? Maybe go for three.

Deadspin is deadspin.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Why stop at posting the same thing twice in a row? Maybe go for three.

To ensure people with limited mental capacity such as yourself can comprehend it.