I picked one heck of a time to take a vacation, huh? The second I head south to Florida to enjoy a seven day break, the news world is flooded with chaos. ESPN layoffs, the poor handling of notifying employees by multiple companies, Audacy and SiriusXM team up (smart move), so did SiriusXM and the WWE, and sports journalism suffered a black eye with coverage of an NFL story.
The lone bright spot, being on vacation allowed me to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup last Sunday between Spain and Argentina. Fox Sports did a masterful job with the entire broadcast, halftime included. A tip of the cap to Eric Shanks, Brad Zager, Jacob Ullman and their entire teams. The World Cup deserved world class coverage and presentation, and Fox Sports delivered.
A Bad Week For ESPN
ESPN is exceptional in so many areas that when the company makes a rash of mistakes handling personnel matters it’s surprising. Given how many people work for ESPN in PR and management, a situation like last week should not happen. Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus, Mike Foss, Dave Roberts and their teams don’t need me to point that out. They know this doesn’t meet ESPN’s standards for handling personnel matters. It stains the good work they’re doing and creates doubt about who can be trusted.
I don’t have access to ESPN’s books, an inside view of how each executive values each employee, or knowledge of upcoming transactions that will force bottom line adjustments. I’ve seen the reports of Pat McAfee’s next potential contract, and I get why some want to blame him or Stephen A. Smith, but doing that shows a lack of business knowledge. Just like in professional sports, companies invest in difference makers differently. You can dislike Pat and Stephen A. but they are marquee attractions and proven performers who generate lift and revenue. If both were free agents tomorrow, they’d have larger deals waiting for them. ESPN should absolutely invest premium dollars in premium stars, and both men fit that description. Adam Schefter, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and others warrant similar treatment.
Bart Scott, Cam Newton, Charles Davis, Andreas Hale, David Lloyd, Stephania Bell, Tom Pelissero, Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark were part of the latest round of cuts. With ESPN’s three billion acquisition of NFL Media assets, some of these moves were not shocking. However, none of these people should have learned their fate from outside sources. Karl Ravech is a true pro who gave over three decades of his life to ESPN. Someone of his caliber does not deserve to learn of his fate like this. I’ve never met anyone during my career who has ever said a bad word about Karl. As a former colleague, he was good to everyone. He deserved more respect than he was afforded.
That does not mean others who were let go didn’t deserve better communication too. They did. If I were in Jimmy Pitaro’s shoes I’d be bothered by the fact that someone I trust leaked sensitive news. If executives didn’t like Ryan Clark’s work or style and wanted him out, that’s fine. What isn’t acceptable is the way it was managed. When information gets leaked to Oukick of Clark’s pending exit, it suggests someone wants to make him look bad. Outkick did their job correctly. This isn’t about Bobby Burack and Dan Zaksheske’s information or process. They were on top of all of it. This is about someone internally at ESPN making a choice to push news of the move to Outkick, knowing the outlet didn’t have great history with Clark.
In my opinion, ESPN PR looks really bad here too. Outkick provided a professional courtesy. That led to scrambling to make sure Clark was notified and pulled off the air mid-show. PR then ran to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic to report it first. Collectively, this was a mess.
First, ESPN owed Ryan that conversation before NFL Live, not during it or after it. He shouldn’t have been on the air that day. Secondly, PR handled the Outkick situation terribly. You may dislike that they had the story but by running to Marchand, they not only stained ESPN PR’s image and created a far worse future problem with Outkick, but they didn’t help Marchand’s image either. Andrew is an excellent reporter whose work I enjoy a lot. This creates an impression that he’s a mouthpiece for ESPN PR and management, which isn’t fair.
The last thing I’ll say about the Ryan Clark saga is that I know there are strong, mixed opinions on him. Speaking only for myself, I think Ryan’s work on The Pivot has been more interesting than his work on ESPN. Some of the race fueled conversations on ESPN were not my cup of tea but I also don’t walk in the shoes of a black man who spent years in the NFL. Ryan has had a different life experience than I have. I can respect that. Whether I’ve agreed, disagreed, enjoyed a show or tuned out, I try to remember that the first goal for a talent is to get people to care enough about what you’re saying to generate fans and critics. Clark certainly had both. ESPN will be fine without Ryan Clark. I hope Ryan is able to do the same without ESPN.
There are a number of good people at ESPN. I’ve said many times that I think Jimmy Pitaro has done a great job leading ESPN. Burke, Dave, Mike, Justin Craig and Amanda Gifford are other managers who I like and have great respect for. The same applies to many in the PR department. But covering the industry requires calling out the losses too, not just highlighting the wins. ESPN added gasoline to a raging inferno last week and created a larger mess for an already negative situation. Being dubbed the worldwide leader is often a positive. Unfortunately, managing this situation is one area where ESPN didn’t measure up.
Ten Observations
- The Portland Trail Blazers had an ESPN-week of their own The franchise cut ties with many across their radio and television broadcasts including Neil Everett, who learned of his exit in a Forbes article. Also out are Michael Holton, Travis Demers, Jamie Hudson and Tom Haberstroh. Veteran PXP voice Kevin Calabro exited too, rejecting an offer he labeled as “subprime”. New owner Tom Dundon may wind up being great but today, fans and industry pros are angry and questioning the team’s future in Portland. Broadcasters who gave years of service deserved better than what they received. Fans have less incentive to buy tickets, advertisers have less reasons to buy advertising and employees have less trust in who they now work for than they did a week ago.
- 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan was in a major car accident on July 14th. The team sought to keep the story quiet until training camp opened on July 25th. A couple of local and national reporters complied. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote an outstanding piece on it, which includes a memorable line from Jay Glazer. Jay said, “true journalism in sports involves finding out the stuff they don’t want us to know, not reporting something that’s going to be announced in five minutes.” With ESPN and the NFL aligned, many expect the league and its teams to seek further influence over what gets reported. This story doesn’t help restore confidence.
- Speaking of influence, SiriusXM and the WWE have partnered to create WWE Radio. At first glance, it’s a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t SiriusXM want to be in business with the best wrestling company on the planet? Adding audio play by play for WWE events is excellent, and something I called for ten years ago. Bringing it finally to life is exciting. Overall, this is a homerun for both parties, but it raises questions for SXM’s flagship show Busted Open. Hardcore fans of the program are concerned that the show will ignore or severely reduce its focus on AEW and other outside wrestling companies. Dave LaGreca has said the new partnership won’t change how the show operates. All involved should expect tighter scrutiny moving forward. Listeners will be monitoring the content closely.
- Disturbed put on an incredible show Saturday night at Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. This was my fourth time seeing them live. It was their best show yet. Vocalist David Draiman was outstanding from start to finish. The band played nearly every hit, sounded tight and had great energy. They don’t have future shows listed as of now, but if they come to your city, go!
- It was sad to learn the news that Jon Bon Jovi had to end the band’s recent show at Madison Square Garden over vocal issues. By all accounts, the prior shows went well. I’m not the band’s business manager nor do I know what Jon’s intentions are, but Billy Joel created a great blueprint with a monthly residency at MSG. Wouldn’t that make sense for a band like Bon Jovi especially in the northeast? Assuming of course, Jon’s voice is strong enough to hold up on a monthly basis.
- Thanks to Kurt Kretzschmar of Premiere Networks for the heads up on this. Arizona State is launching the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in Content Creation. The course will teach students how to build an audience, grow a personal brand, analyze social media performance, and graduate with a real online following. Some will see this as long overdue. Others will question if it’s worth four year’s of financial investment when you can learn and do it yourself on social media. What I want to know is, who’s teaching it? If Ryan Hatch, Scott Sutherland, Chris Berry, Aaron Trimmer and Phoenix based on-air personalities are involved, that’s smart. If not, ASU might want to make a few calls.
- Barstool Sports has announced it’s adding another Gruden to its operation. Former Commanders Head Coach Jay Gruden is joining his brother Jon Gruden for a new podcast titled Gruden Family Football Show. Kayce Smith will serve as the host. Production for the program will originate out of Tampa. The show is launching this fall.
- Red Seat Ventures CEO Chris Balfe recently joined Business Insider’s Peter Kafka for a conversation. In it, Balfe talked about Netflix’s move to challenge YouTube, and the term “podcast” being archaic (agreed), but Balfe’s views on video clipping were what particularly grabbed my attention. He pointed out that the short-form video marketplace last year was over $100 billion: 50 billion with Meta, with YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, making up the rest. Chris believes media companies and creator economy companies have made a big mistake. He explains the challenges associated with distributing and monetizing long-form and short-form content. Worth your time if you care about business issues.
- I want to give a shout out to our own Dylan Barrett. A year ago at this time, Barrett Media was not producing video on a regular basis. I hired Dylan after graduating and told him, get us out there consistently, expand our presence across most platforms, highlight our speakers, and make sure the brand looks strong. We added the Barrett Media Minute, The 4-Cast, sessions from the Summits, and began clipping a bunch of great conversations to highlight our Summit speakers so people would check out the full conversations. One year later, and we just celebrated our first full month of eclipsing over 1 million video views across all platforms. Great job, kid!
- And finally, the New York Post featured a story last week on ex-CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin where she openly talked about her sex life. When I first saw the headline I thought it had to be AI or a meme designed to generate attention. Nope. It was accurate. If Baldwin wants to openly discuss her personal life, go for it, but when you’re the same person who acted outraged at Clay Travis for mentioning the word boobs on national television, it creates the impression that the performance on television was less than authentic.
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Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.