NBA reporter Zach Lowe has found a new home following his recent dismissal from ESPN. Lowe will be joining Bill Simmons’ The Ringer podcast network, as announced last night on Simmons’ podcast. It remains unclear whether Lowe will also be writing for The Ringer website, but given his background, it seems likely.
Lowe now returns to working with Simmons after more than a decade apart. The two first collaborated when Grantland hired Lowe from Sports Illustrated back in 2011.
“Zach is one of the best people I’ve ever worked with,” Simmons said via his Bill Simmons Podcast. “I was really hoping at some point in life we would get to work together again. So it’s happening.”
Lowe’s podcast on The Ringer Podcast Network, in collaboration with Spotify, is set to debut next week and be called The Zach Lowe Show with episodes dropping every Monday and Thursday. In the meantime, Lowe is scheduled to appear on Simmons’ podcast this week to promote his new show.
Lowe was among a few ESPN employees affected by last summer’s layoffs in 2024. Widely regarded as one of the most respected analysts covering basketball, he will bring his deep-dive analysis and sharp writing to The Ringer network with this new venture.
Meanwhile, Simmons, now 55, recently signed a contract extension with Spotify for a reported minimum of two years. Under this new deal, he will continue hosting The Bill Simmons Podcast while also maintaining his role as Spotify’s head of talk strategy. Simmons originally joined Spotify in 2020 when the streaming giant acquired The Ringer for approximately $250 million. At the time, CEO Daniel Ek was focused on expanding Spotify’s portfolio beyond music in an effort to build a stronger foothold in the podcasting industry.
By acquiring The Ringer, Spotify secured a well-established brand with a dedicated audience—one that Simmons had carefully cultivated over many years, dating back to his ESPN tenure and the launch of The Ringer in 2016.
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