Over the last decade, Andrew Marchand has been the reporter responsible for breaking news about monumental transactions in the world of sports media with vast implications. In the last calendar year alone, Marchand revealed that Pat McAfee had reached a deal with ESPN to license episodes of his eponymous digital show to the network; the departure of chief executive officer Erika Ayers Badan from Barstool Sports; and plans of ESPN New York declining the renewal of its lease on the 98.7 FM frequency among others. A list he compiled of the 25 sports media professionals who had the most powerful 2023 made headlines around the industry, and his podcast with John Ourand soared to the top of the charts.
While Marchand continued to back his reputation as a perennial newsbreaker and adept reporter, he observed countless ephemeralities amid a changing state of media. Concurrent with alterations in consumption trends and emerging technologies, the sports media ecosystem is adapting to an era predicated on deliverables disseminated via digital avenues. As a reporter for the New York Post, Marchand watched as The New York Times Company purchased The Athletic, a digital sports publication, in a $550 million cash transaction occurring in January 2022.
Since that time, the outlet has invested in deeper, more comprehensive reporting rather than attaining the broadest reach in its coverage. Moreover, it took over sports coverage for The New York Times when the company eliminated its longtime sports section while diminishing year-over-year losses. Marchand recognized the growing scope of the publication and its reporting team, which includes Ken Rosenthal, Shams Charania, Dianna Russini and Tyler Kepner among others. With growing intrigue, Marchand began to converse with executive editor Steven Ginsberg and publisher David Perpich to gain insights and consider taking his talents to the brand.
“I knew them before I worked there, and I got a good impression of where the place was currently, and so that gave me confidence in terms of making the decision,” Marchand said, “but it was a hard one because I really have only good things to say about the Post and working in the sports section.”
When The Athletic began reorganizing its company over the summer, it took part in a round of layoffs that eliminated approximately four percent of its journalistic staff. One of the areas impacted was the sports business beat, which included writers Daniel Kaplan and Bill Shea; however, sports media reporter Richard Deitsch remained with the outlet. Seven months later, the publication added Marchand, announcing the news mere moments after he broke the story on his X account. His first week in the new role coincided with the festivities leading up to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nev., granting him a chance to interact with media members and colleagues in person.
Beginning his stint with The Athletic, however, also meant the conclusion of the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, effectuated through a partnership between the New York Post and Sports Business Journal. Just a few weeks earlier, Ourand departed Sports Business Journal after 17 years to join Puck and serve as its sports business correspondent. Although Marchand enjoyed his time working on the podcast, he feels it is unlikely that he and Ourand will resume the project for now, nor is he ruling out a future return.
“I first want to get fully settled at The Athletic so it might take me a little while before I get the podcast going again, but I hope to do that and plan on doing it,” Marchand said. “[I’ve] just got to work everything out so I have everything set up.”
An aspect of Marchand’s coverage of the sports media industry includes the audio sector, which is enduring a shift towards digital means of distribution. Whether it is traditional radio stations, podcasts or internet offerings, there is palpable interest towards the evolution of the format.
On Thursday morning, Marchand will be moderating a panel at the 2024 Barrett Sports Media Summit in New York City discussing the current status of audio and future of the medium. For the discussion, which is presented by Backbone Networks, he will be joined by three executives at national radio outlets – Eric Spitz, vice president of sports programming at SiriusXM; Justin Craig, senior director of programming and operations at ESPN Radio; and Scott Shapiro, senior vice president of sports programming at Premiere Networks, responsible for oversight of FOX Sports Radio and podcasts.
“I’m just curious with what they have to say about where things stand and the future of audio,” Marchand explained. “They all have successful businesses, but they’re all different.”
Entering the session, Marchand is interested in discovering how they view the diversified program offerings within the audio space concentrated between varying platforms of dissemination. The decision by Good Karma Brands to decline renewal of the 98.7 FM signal from Emmis Communications is predicated on data suggesting augmented digital patronization of the outlet, but it still remains intriguing to many professionals about emphasizing digital and AM distribution.
Consumers will still be able to access ESPN New York on the go through these mediums in addition to ESPN Radio’s national programming lineup on its SiriusXM channel, but the FM dial will only include WFAN in the local sports talk format after this August. Even though this represents a change in accessibility, Marchand still feels there is an ability to capitalize on the power of audio and optimize its impact.
“I just think you have to be nimble and fast and you’ve got to be a little ahead of where things are going, and I think too many times – and this comes from ownership generally – they’re too stuck on profits in the moment instead of profits in the future in terms of getting places; why you still have the cash cow coming in instead of reacting late,” Marchand expressed. “That’s something that all media and probably all business with the digital age just has to adapt quicker and figure out things faster to sustain itself and maybe even grow.”
In his role as a senior reporter, Marchand wants The Athletic to prosper both in the present moment and in the future. When he was previously working at ESPN as a beat reporter covering the New York Yankees, he would think about returning to the New York Post to cover media every time his contracts expired. After all, he had written his ‘Sports Clicker’ column with the publication after starting at the New York Post as an agate clerk, a position where he was responsible for amassing statistics pages and able to pitch stories.
Furthermore, Marchand helped the newspaper break the story that the New York Mets were going to introduce black uniforms to their rotation in 1998. Two years later, he was assigned the role as the paper’s beat reporter where he continued to hone his craft and foster a strong work ethic.
“I think this is probably true in all the sports, but the managers; the executives – they all care what you’re writing, especially when you’re at a place like the Post with the backpages [and] the big headlines, so you’re a central figure in terms of being part of the story [with] how you tell it,” Marchand said. “So yeah, it was a great thing for me to do, especially those Mets years because it was a lot.”
Following 11 years at ESPN writing and appearing across programming, Marchand returned to the New York Post and pursued his passion of covering sports media. Although he had pre-existing relationships with people through his time at ESPN, he feels that it is somewhat misunderstood that he came with his sources. Rather, Marchand has worked to cultivate his sources through networking and building trust. As a result, he is able to reach out to confirm and/or corroborate information to gather scoops and disseminate information en masse.
Throughout the day, Marchand is on the phone to have conversations and work on several stories while also keeping in touch with his colleagues through the company’s Slack platform. Moreover, he is in constant communication with Deitsch and national managing editor Zack Pierce to keep them aware of what he is doing.
“There’s a lot going on and trying to figure out how to manage your time,” Marchand said. “Now I’m a month in, so I’m getting a little more settled, but that was the thing I was sort of most interested to see how that develops so you kind of get your rhythm.”
There are many occurrences when the newsbreaks Marchand gathers are initially promulgated on X and other social media platforms, providing an outlet to instantly disseminate his articles to those interested in sports media. Many of his posts accrue millions of impressions and subsequent shares as well, which takes place because of the news itself and his sterling credibility as a reporter. While there are inherent benefits of being the first reporter to break a story, Marchand is not willing to sacrifice his accuracy and journalistic principles in the process. At the same time, he remains cognizant of the fact that there is speculation about his reporting endeavors and ultimately lets his work speak for him.
“There’s a lot of misperceptions about where stories come from and a lot of B.S. with that, but I can’t worry about it,” Marchand said. “You can’t really address it because I’m not going to go into sourcing on stories, but there is a lot of stuff that’s out there in terms of who and how some of my stories have come to fruition. There’s no way to combat it because even if you said – which I never would – but if you say, ‘No, this is how it actually went. These are my sources for the story,’ people probably still wouldn’t believe you.”
Marchand yearns to be fair and straightforward with his sources while having an understanding of the esoteric parlance and subject matter to ensure he is not being deceived. Conversely, sources want to know that they can trust him and safeguard that they and/or the information will be portrayed accurately. There are various levels of attribution on which sources are willing to divulge information, and it is up to Marchand and his team at The Athletic whether or not they run with a story. If they end up publishing the information without on-the-record attribution and it is later proven incorrect, he knows that he and his publication will then be held accountable.
“I would say you really can’t be a wallflower when you’re dealing with people,” Marchand said. “Sometimes these are very high-level, important people that you’re talking to or famous people, and I just know this from my baseball experience. I don’t care who you are – whatever – I’m going to treat you the same way I treat everyone else. I try to treat everyone with respect, and you want them to treat you with respect.”
Despite several industry professionals considering Marchand a preeminent newsbreaker and one of the most skilled reporters in the space, he does not act condescending or highfalutin towards his contemporaries. On the contrary, he exhibits humility and ethics in his role within a niche that continues to proffer heightened consumer interest and awareness amid paradigmatic shifts in audio and video formats. For example, cord cutting and shifting advertising spending, concurrent with advances in technology, are threatening the survival of regional sports networks.
When Marchand was aiming to assimilate back into media reporting, he was considering a multitude of factors and considered beginning his own venture. In the end, his relationship with executive sports editor Chris Shaw helped facilitate a second stint at the New York Post where he adopted an acronym, ‘EWTCSM,’ which stands for, “Everyone wants to cover sports media.” Marchand will sometimes reply to posts on X with the phrase, underscoring the tongue-in-cheek catchphrase, which in part holds some level of truth.
“There’s so many examples I could point to, but college football is one that we just saw with all the realignment of the conferences,” Marchand said. “During COVID, the amount of games that the tonnage leagues like baseball, hockey and the NBA played were largely due to what their TV deals required, and so I could go on and on.”
The setting of the BSM Summit panel Marchand is hosting this week is not lost upon him as he embarks on this undertaking. The venue will include many key decision makers eager to learn more information and gain new insights pertaining to future developments in the sports media industry. As Marchand anticipates the beginning of the event, he is eager to hear from the scheduled lineup and network with event attendees.
“I know a lot of the people that are going to be there – they got a lot of big-name people who are going to be there who are always good to hear from and panels,” Marchand said. “It’s just good to see people. It’s a good get-together and it’s informative, and so I think those are kind of the most exciting things.”
Marchand recognizes that there are a wide variety of opinions from people covering sports media, which are subsequently expressed across several different mediums. Attending the two-day industry conference as a reporter focused in digital media, he believes that the subscription-based business model combined with advertising is sustainable amid industry-wide fluctuations.
He recognizes the sentiment of award-winning sportswriter Peter King, who opined in his final Football Morning in America that he does not think words are profitable anymore. Marchand is more optimistic but also conjectures that the landscape will fundamentally change.
“Magazines aren’t going to survive; only some newspapers will survive, but they’re digitally focused,” Marchand said. “We’re already seeing that transition, but I think that [with] smaller places – I think niche is going to be even more important – and there’s audiences for these things.”
Looking towards the rest of the year, Marchand is closely following the status of regional sports networks, NBA media rights negotiations and assimilation of seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady into the lead broadcast booth for FOX Sports. There is information he is privy to that he knows would interest those on the internet, but he will wait until it is the right time to adeptly develop and write the story.
“You wake up every day and you’re like, ‘Even though there’s no scoreboard, how are you going to win today?,’ and that’s kind of the goal every day,” Marchand said. “That’s kind of how I wake up and try to win every day. Sometimes that [means] you maybe don’t write something that day, but you make the amount of calls that you need to [in order] to learn more, to understand more and to try to be ahead of the competition.”
While he will remain aware of the latest news and developments in sports media, Marchand is excited to take the stage on Thursday morning to host “The Network Scoop” panel and hear about the future of audio-based media. Being in the theater, he will look to gather more knowledge about where the industry is headed and witness the synergy between colleagues and platforms firsthand. Attendees can rest assured that Marchand will arrive with alacrity and curiosity, poised to optimize the time with these industry executives through a worthwhile discussion.
“It’s not for me like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to talk about sports media,’” Marchand said. “I like talking about it. You want the texting to stop sometimes when you’re just trying to have some quiet time with friends or family, but for the most part I like talking about it and hearing from people and figuring out what’s next or why this happened or learning about things, and so that keeps me pretty motivated.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
