It has been over four years since ESPN and Dan Le Batard parted ways following a rocky ending with a network he once called home for more than two decades. Known for his honest approach to content that challenged the network’s norms in a time where sports intersected with politics and culture more than ever, Le Batard’s exit from ESPN was the start of what would become Meadowlark Media—a company founded by Le Batard and former ESPN president John Skipper in 2021, with a focus on personality-driven stories across various formats, including podcasts, live programming, and documentaries.
In late May, Meadowlark Media announced a multi-year extension of their content distribution, monetization, and sponsorship agreement with DraftKings. A partnership rooted in the very beginnings of Meadowlark’s launch in 2021, it allowed Le Batard to continue creating content without corporate oversight and gain unlimited creative freedom.
“I have felt that nobody who has written about what we’re doing has totally understood what it is that we’re doing,” said Le Batard. “One of the things that we wanted to do is give people permission to bet on themselves.”
Through the vision of Le Batard’s creative mind and the highly skilled business acumen of Skipper, Meadowlark Media has blossomed into a company that houses over 40 employees. With The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz as the face of the company, they feature a wide array of shoulder programs featuring former Major League Baseball executive David Samson and Peabody Award-winning journalist Pablo Torre, among others.
DraftKings Extends as John Skipper Steps Down as CEO
Le Batard was excited to see the extension come to fruition with DraftKings after roughly six months of negotiation. He noted during the process the company explored other options, but the journey itself brought out a quantifiable way to know the value of the business through the amount he was personally involved in the discussions.
“More involved than I’d like to be, because I’ve had to learn some things about business that I never thought I would have to learn,” explained Le Batard. “Wildly grateful and excited. During a really stressful, terrible time in media, we have a sponsor that is willing to believe in the things we are, the way that we are.”
In keeping with his on-air persona, the way Le Batard has approached building and reinforcing Meadowlark is to alter the landscape for those who leave a mainstream media entity to tackle the look for the future. By having a partner in DraftKings that shares the curiosity of finding what works through creativity, Le Batard feels the difficulty and hurdles overcome since Meadowlark’s inception will lead to amazing things to come.
“Self-employment is hard, reinvention is hard. Fighting in the modern media climate and trying to stay young is hard,” said Le Batard. “Every single thing I’ve ever done that is fulfilling is also hard.”
The announcement of the extension with DraftKings came days after news that Le Batard’s partner in forming Meadowlark Media, John Skipper, will be stepping down as CEO of the company.
“He was the business guy for us. He handled the business stuff that I didn’t have a lot of familiarity with,” said Le Batard.
Le Batard referenced that Skipper was always on board to assist him with getting Meadowlark Media off to a running start. Now with the company up and running and entering the latest extension with DraftKings, Le Batard was asked if Meadowlark would be on the lookout for a new CEO.
“At the moment, I’m gathering information on all of the things that we need,” noted Le Batard. “We have a strong executive team and have more than 40 employees. We have an assortment of people who have been carrying the load in his [Skipper’s] dilution—not his absence. He’s still doing The Sporting Class for us. He’s still a board member, and he’s still somebody who’s going to be helping us in places where his skill set demands it.”
Skipper hired Le Batard at ESPN in order to, according to Le Batard, have the strongest representation of Hispanic culture in the American media landscape. Le Batard believes he did the job he was asked to do, and Skipper in turn left Le Batard with a rare freedom of creativity in a corporate media setting. The professional relationship Skipper and Le Batard share is nearly the same with Meadowlark and DraftKings, with one slight distinction.
“In this case, I own, and we own all our own s**t. Where we were before at every other stop, somebody else had the ownership instead of us,” said Le Batard. “We are rented or partners, but it allows the thing that’s always front of lobe for me in negotiations, which is always freedom over money. It’s not money that gets you freedom; it’s freedom, in our case, that has gotten us money.”
Le Batard Providing Freedom for All at Meadowlark Media
Freedom to create is a philosophy that Le Batard lives by regarding the other creators under the Meadowlark Media umbrella. He describes each individual creator as their own business, free to create and partner with whom they choose. Earlier this year, Barrett Media reported that Jon “Stugotz” Weiner would be stepping back from his role on The Dan Le Batard Show after 20 years working alongside Le Batard.
“Stugotz wants to concentrate on doing God Bless Football five days a week because it’s his and he owns it,” said Le Batard. “After 20 years partnering with someone, he wishes to also partner but do some solo stuff. I totally understand that, totally support it, and am excited to see what he makes of that.”
Le Batard believes his success at this point in his career is being able to do what you want while not limiting anyone to their own creative possibilities. As a business, his goal is to expand. Le Batard noted it was an initial underestimation by Meadowlark in the amount of people the company needed for the work behind the scenes. Now with years of experience working through those challenges, he is always looking for the best young, smart, and funny talent available.
Pablo Torre is a signature talent on Meadowlark’s roster who Le Batard notes has the strongest staff you will find for any one individual or any one podcast, because of the strong and in-depth journalism he provides the company. He feels the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out has the “broad range of smart and dumb” but is thoroughly informed in fact-based reporting that most lack in sports entertainment.
Le Batard notes that the work Torre provides is a counter to the statement that journalism as a form of media is dying.
“You can say dying. I prefer to say changing, with the possibility of that change resulting in growth,” said Le Batard. “All growth requires change by definition. People are uncomfortable with change, and sometimes that change is things dying. I believe Pablo, and we, are keeping an assortment of things alive on his precious treasure chest of a platform. It’s different than anything else being consumed anywhere in sports media.”
Wild Changes at ESPN & ESPN Radio Since Leaving
Since leaving ESPN, Le Batard has continued to be an outspoken critic of the network and some of its personalities. While he feels the network is wildly different in how it conducts its business, he is less stunned by how the network has changed its radio programming. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz once shared the same airspace with programs such as Mike & Mike and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, where today the lineup is radically different than when Le Batard left.
“I love radio. It’s my favorite,” said Le Batard. “The business decision that ESPN has made there, while I don’t like it, is a smart and efficient one if you’re not someone who is a radio company. They’re a television company.”
Le Batard said that while hosting shows on ESPN Radio, he understood over time that the radio product put out by the network was likened to “a fly around the elephant’s tail.” As for the future of the ESPN Radio product, Le Batard does not see a promising outlook.
“That business is something that right now doesn’t have a giant future that is visionary,” explained Le Batard. “What do you do? You try and save money where you can. Put out a professional product, but not necessarily the product that hearkens to the glory days of when people most fell in love with whatever their sports radio lineup was.”
Referencing the wildly different business approach by ESPN in recent years, Le Batard remains stunned by how the company is renting talents for use on the network—something which points to a sign of how the sports media landscape is changing, where the talent becomes more valuable than the network they provide content for.
“What a stark change it represents to rent but not own [Pat] McAfee and Rich Eisen. Stephen A. Smith is now just doing First Take, and is free to do what he wants elsewhere,” noted Le Batard. “The last four years of pandemic and business change turned ESPN into an entity that is okay allowing others to be on without the consequences of being employed by ESPN. Shannon Sharpe and McAfee at this point are needed more by ESPN than they need ESPN.”
For Le Batard, The Win Is in the Ability To Keep Creating
Nearly five years have passed since Dan Le Batard bid adieu to ESPN. Now, all these years later, Le Batard finds himself as the face of a successful media company that continues to build on the concepts of personality-driven stories—sharing a passion for journalism, community, family, and fun. When the partnership with DraftKings was extended, instead of finding himself screaming for joy in the streets of Miami, he found himself wildly grateful for the opportunity while weeping in his loving wife’s arms.
When asked what is considered success for Meadowlark Media with the extended partnership, Le Batard followed up with a question of his own.
“Do you not believe me when I tell you with great gratitude that the biggest trophy is being able to do it?” asked Le Batard. “Meadowlark is a success if I can just keep doing it with these people that I care about, because what we do every day is patently ridiculous… Obviously, I’d like to make money, and I’d like to have the business be profitable. It’s not something I ever want to sell. I want to be able to do it and keep doing it so that the people around me who are laughing every day can continue to laugh.”
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
