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Gregg Giannotti: ‘The Athletic Looks Like Geniuses Now’

BSM Staff
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Gregg Giannotti: ‘The Athletic Looks Like Geniuses Now’

The decision by The New York Times to close its sports department was big news in the media industry Monday. It was big news to New Yorkers too, even those that work in other professions. Tuesday morning, Gregg Giannotti said giving control of the paper’s sports coverage to The Athletic was disappointing but understandable.

“They bought The Athletic and they basically said, we’re going to have The Athletic run our sports from now on,” he said on WFAN’s Boomer & Gio. “It was a $550 million acquisition that The New York Times had of The Athletic, and they felt like having a full sports department was redundant.”

From the Athletic’s perspective, Giannotti thinks what happened on Monday is a sort of proof of concept.

“The Athletic came in and they kind of rolled the dice. I mean, they basically spent a ton of money poaching beat writers from all over the place and paying them and beat writers from these newspapers were like, ‘Listen, I’m not going to get paid with the future newspapers. I don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m going to go with this company’ and then The New York Times ends up buying The Athletic.”

Newspapers in markets across the country are trying to figure out how to sustain themselves. Layoffs, closures and limited publishing schedules have all been the results of these businesses trying to sustain themselves with a “business as usual” approach.

Giannotti, like others in the media sphere, did lament the end of a dedicated sports department at The New York Times. He took a bit of a different tone though, because he saw reason to praise The Athletic too.

He said that what The Athletic seemed to figure out was that journalism has to be valuable to more than just the audience these days. The site was worth $550 million to The New York Times because it solved both staffing and subscription issues.

“The Athletic looks like geniuses now, because that seems to be more of the sustainable model for sportswriting than the traditional newspaper model.”

Tucker Carlson Hosting ‘Presidential Forum’ For TheBlaze

BNM Staff
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Later this week, Tucker Carlson will host what is being called a “presidential forum” for TheBlaze.

In an announcement on Twitter, the digital media outlet shared that Carlson would be joined by candidates Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN) at the event.

“Blaze Media is teaming up with THE FAMiLY LEADER to bring you the first presidential forum of the 2024 Republican Primary season, hosted by Tucker Carlson. We’ll be live streaming this event all day Friday, July 14th on BlazeTV and the BlazeTV YouTube channel,” the tweet read.

Coverage of the event will begin on Friday, July 14th at 10:00 AM ET. The Summit, as it’s called, is not being billed as a debate. The first Republican primary debate is currently scheduled for August 23rd in Milwaukee.

The news that Carlson will host the event comes on the heels of an early May report from The Washington Post that the former Fox News host would look for alternative routes to be involved in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

“Carlson and his team have discussed the possibility of moderating a candidate forum outside of the traditional protocols surrounding the GOP primary debate system, according to two people familiar with the considerations,” the report claimed.

Nick Wright: ‘Twitter is Falling Apart’

BSM Staff
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Nick Wright: ‘Twitter is Falling Apart’

The state of Twitter is not what it was when Nick Wright was building his audience on the platform. That has made it less painful for him to watch the app’s decline. 

On Colin Cowherd’s podcast this week, Wright said the platform was already “too toxic” before Elon Musk bought and began messing with the platform. 

“I don’t care how ‘above it’ you claim to be,” the FS1 host said. “If you have thousands of strangers saying basically, ‘You suck,’ it’s going to get in your head somehow. And the flip side is if you have thousands of strangers saying ‘you’re the greatest, it’s going to get in your head somehow. The things that get the most applause on social media are not necessarily representative of the things that are what I use social media for, which is as a professional vehicle.”

To combat that toxicity, Wright says he had made a point to interact with only verified athletes, journalists and broadcasters. He says the changes Twitter made to its verification process have been some of Musk’s most damaging moves to the platform impacts.

“Musk ripping off that verified tab to mean anything, was to me very damaging to my ability to engage with anyone on Twitter. Very damaging. So that, to me, was a shame.”

He said that “Twitter is falling apart.” What shocks Wright the most is that he isn’t particularly upset about it. He says that wouldn’t have been true just three years ago

“I think I would’ve been like ‘Oh my god, I’ve like spent so much time building up an audience here, doing all this stuff,’” he told Cowherd. “And now that it’s happening, I’m a little relieved. Like if this thing goes away…I’m not gonna quit it. I can’t. Like, I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to Twitter. But if I have my platform and Twitter starts to splinter off into whatever the hell it’s turning into, I’m not gonna be that sad.”

Joe Pags: Reporters Are Asking Legitimate Questions About White House Cocaine

BNM Staff
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Joe Pags: Reporters Are Asking Legitimate Questions About White House Cocaine

Some reporters are questioning whether the cocaine found in the White House belongs to a member of President Joe Biden’s family. On Friday, talk show host Joe Pags expressed his belief that it is acceptable for reporters to ask such questions. 

Karine Jean Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, is criticized for giving vague responses to challenging questions during her daily press briefings. 

“Of course, that’s a journalistic question; it’s a good journalistic question,” said Pags. “The reporter simply wants Karine Jean Pierre to say, ‘There is no chance it is not the Biden Family’s cocaine.’ Something she refuses to say, she won’t say it. Let me bring this point out that people forgot. Hunter Biden has been at the White House a lot lately. Hunter Biden is a drug addict.”  

During a daily White House press briefing, a reporter from The New York Post asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the cocaine found in the West Wing belonged to a member of the Biden family. The press secretary responded defensively and expressed frustration about the question while also questioning why deputy press Secretary Andrew Bates cited the Hatch Act when asked about the cocaine the day before. 

“Joe Biden has admitted that his son had a problem with drugs,” Pags added. “So, it is not beyond the pale to say, ‘Was it the Biden family’s cocaine?’ The press secretary, through her righteous indignation, her annoying voice, has decided not to answer the question.”  

The location where the cocaine was discovered was near the Situation Room, a restricted area only accessible to a select few individuals.  

“The person who brought the cocaine into the White House was not patted down or scanned for drugs,” he added. 

Do Streamers Need to Invest in Linear TV For Sports Dominance?

Demetri Ravanos
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Do Streamers Need to Invest in Linear TV For Sports Dominance?

How much terrestrial television are you watching that isn’t sports or news these days? The average American still watches a decent bit of broadcast and cable programming, but we aren’t average Americans. We are in the media industry. I bet the numbers are a little different for us.

The numbers are also probably different if you took a group of lawyers, doctors, construction workers, teachers, stock brokers, and truck drivers and then took a group of our colleagues and asked “where do you find Thursday Night Football?”. 

I do a lot of radio hits talking about media topics. I am always careful to make sure that the host I am speaking with understands this reality. No, not everyone knows where to watch the Vikings and Eagles on Thursday night in week 2 of the NFL season.

These people and this reality were on my mind on Monday when I clicked a link on our site to see George Pyne discussing the reality facing ESPN. Tech companies will always be able to outbid cable networks for media rights contracts. 

Maybe there is a league who just wants the pay day. MLS owners clearly valued money and security over access when it signed a deal to take all of its local inventory off of cable and put it behind a paywall on Apple TV+. 

Major League Soccer is experiencing tremendous growth and hype, but come on. It is still miles behind the NHL, which is miles behind the other three major American professional sports leagues. Making it easy for fans to see your games is more important to the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball than one more billion.

Pyne prophecizes that will lead to more joint deals. We won’t see something like what ESPN has with the SEC in the future. No one place will own all of a league’s inventory because the unlimited money isn’t coming from the companies with the most reach.

I want to throw another idea out there. What if instead of cooperation, the future c-word on the lips of sports media is consolidation? 

The cable bundle may be going the way of the dodo, but the true death of cable isn’t on the immediate horizon. Rather than split inventory with ESPN, FOX or anyone else, if you are Apple or Amazon and really looking to throw your weight around in the sports world, why wouldn’t you start a conversation to acquire one of these networks?

As in any business deal, the answer to the question “does that make sense?” will only become clear with math. 

Can Amazon make more money by offering advertisers access to more NFL inventory? Yes. 

Can Amazon get more NFL inventory by buying a network that already has a deal with the NFL? Yes?

Can Amazon make enough money on that advertising inventory to offset the cost of buying that network? That is the answer that matters most, but I suspect the answer is also yes.

It seems a little counterintuitive, right? This is the age of traditional media companies investing in streaming. Disney launched ESPN+ and then Disney+. Discovery Warner Bros. launched Max. No one can turn back time. Trying to doesn’t make sense.

Event television is largely a thing of the past. The days of more than 76 million people tuning into NBC for a series finale of any show are over. People work on their own schedules now.

Sports and news are the only event television left. Case in point, more than 115 million people tuned into Super Bowl LVII in February, making it the most-watched television program of all time. In order to have event television, you need events. You get one every two or four years with news. You get multiple every year with sports.

Entertainment television thrives on niches. That is a model streaming services can take full advantage of. Sports are still big tent programming. They have the ability to drive populations to their televisions as a community. Broadcast and cable networks are still able to take advantage of that in a way streamers cannot.

As Pyne points out, these tech companies see their bottom lines continue to grow. Why would an investment in current market conditions, no matter how short term make sense as Apple and Amazon continue to flex their muscles in the sports world?

Sports Media Reacts to New York Times Shuttering Its Sports Department

BSM Staff
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Sports Media Reacts to New York Times Shuttering Its Sports Department

The sports journalism world was shocked on Monday when news broke that the New York Times will be disbanding its sports department.

The paper plans to transition all the employees who were with the newspaper’s sports department to positions at The Athletic, which the New York Times Company purchased last year for $550 million.

Several all across sports media offered their reactions to the news.

Dan Patrick: Why Can LIV Golf Get a TV Deal and the Pac-12 Can’t?

BSM Staff
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With the clock ticking for the Pac-12 to get a new media rights deal in place, the hold-up is also creating a roadblock in further painting a vision of the conference’s future.

On Monday, Dan Patrick said the admittance of San Diego State and SMU hinges on the conference finalizing a TV deal. San Diego State and SMU would replace USC and UCLA, which are joining the Big Ten.

“That’s what I found out Friday night when I got back from vacation, found one of my college football sources reached out and said, ‘Hey I know that you reported that San Diego State was gonna go to the Pac-12 months ago. From what I’m finding out, it’s feeling like it’s close to being a done deal that San Diego State is gonna go to the Pac-12,'” Patrick read from his phone. “‘They’re waiting for the TV deal to be announced.'”

Adding the Aztecs makes sense for the conference, considering it would continue to have a presence in Southern California. Dan said his source told him that adding SMU would also help establish a presence in Dallas and Texas overall.

“It’s almost like a game of Risk, but it’s the United States where these conferences want states,” he said. “They want to be able to dominate a state – Have a presence in a state. That’s why San Diego State to the Pac-12, you gotta have them because you have to have a school in Southern California. You don’t have that since UCLA and USC are going to the Big Ten.”

“Why is it the LIV tour can get a TV deal, and the Pac-12 can’t get a TV deal?” Dan added.

Dan also talked about the conference potentially adding Boise State and UNLV. But the source said academics and a lack of additional strong athletic programs outside of football is standing in Boise State’s way. Additionally, the source said adding UNLV would only be if the conference wanted to expand into Las Vegas. The Pac-12 does hold its football championship game there as well as men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Colin Cowherd: I’m From Washington, I Should Be at the All-Star Game

BSM Staff
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Colin Cowherd: I’m From Washington, I Should Be at the All-Star Game

The MLB All-Star Game is Tuesday night in Seattle, and Colin Cowherd wondered Monday why he wasn’t with his FOX Sports colleagues at T-Mobile Park.

“I am proud it’s in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, where I grew up as a kid watching bad Mariner teams at the Kingdome,” Cowherd said on The Herd Monday.

Derek Jeter, who joined FOX this year as a studio analyst, mentioned that it was odd that Colin wasn’t hosting his show near where he grew up. Cowherd grew up in Grayland, Washington, a coastal town about two hours southwest of Seattle.

“I’m a little disappointed you’re from here, and you’re not here,” Jeter said. “You should be on site.”

Colin thanked Jeter for bringing it up.

“You know you could rub up to the bosses here before the game and give a little heads up on that,” Cowherd joked.

Victor Wembanyama Summer League Debut 2nd Most Watched Ever

BSM Staff
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Despite a less than stellar debut at the NBA Summer League, plenty of fans tuned in on television to watch the teenage French star take the floor for the San Antonio Spurs.

The game broadcast averaged 1.39 million viewers on ESPN, putting it second behind Zion Williamson’s debut in 2019 as the most-watched Summer League game on record. It peaked at 1.63 million.

The Spurs drafting Wemby first overall in last month’s draft has galvanized the fanbase, and that showed in Friday’s viewership numbers. Sports Media Watch reported that broadcast also averaged more viewers than the team’s only nationally-televised game last season.

The Spurs played the Hornets in that Friday night matchup. The game also outdrew Charlotte’s most-watched national TV game last season.

Wembanyama came into the NBA surrounded by hype. Whether he lives up to it in the long-term remains to be seen, but it is already paying off for ESPN. In addition to the success of Summer League, the network enjoyed record ratings for Draft Night last month when the Spurs selected the French star first overall.

The New York Times Eliminates Its Sports Desk

BSM Staff
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One of the nation’s largest newspapers is set to change the way it covers sports and could set a blueprint going forward in order to cut costs. The Athletic, which recently eliminated 20 positions within the company, recently refined its sports coverage to focus on storytelling and quality over quantity. On Sunday, 28 members of The New York Times sports department sent a letter to executive editor Joseph Kahn and The New York Times Company chairman A.G. Sulzberger wherein they asked if their jobs were in jeopardy.

The New York Times Company purchased The Athletic for $550 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2022 in an all-cash deal. Initially, terms of the deal outlined the separate operation of the digital sports publication from the existing sports section at The New York Times newspaper. As the newspaper business continues to change with emphasis placed upon digital means of dissemination, the venerable national outlet is now terminating the existence of its own sports department entirely.

The current sports staff, which includes nearly 35 journalists and editors, will not be losing their jobs; instead, they will be transitioned to work in other areas at the granular publication. Furthermore, other reporting niches will create beats focused on topics within the larger scope of sports, such as the business genre tackling money and power in sports. There are currently no layoffs planned at the company; rather, this is a restructuring of ongoing roles.

“We intend to utilize The Athletic — which has among the largest sports newsrooms in the world — to provide Times readers with a greater abundance of sports coverage than ever before,” the company stated. “Under our plan, the digital homepage, newsletters, social feeds, the sports landing page and the print section will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories The Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe.”

Readers of the newspaper will now receive coverage from The Athletic staff, who also receive complementary online access to the platform as part of their subscription. The vertical has yet to finish a quarter with an operating profit and lost $7.8 million in the first quarter of the year. In fact, The Athletic laid off 4% of its newsroom last month in a drastic shift in its coverage plans, favoring quality over quantity. Nonetheless, subscriptions have risen to over three million users, up by nearly two million since the acquisition amid sustained growth.

In an email to staff on Monday titled “Our Plans for Sports Journalism,” Sulzberger and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien, conveyed their desire to become “a global leader” in the field. Kahn and executives at the company met with the sports department in an exchange with belligerent undertones. Members of the sports vertical wanted to know why leadership had waited to impart its decision, a query Kahn felt was “unfair” since the company reassigned staff members instead of firing them outright.

The eradication of its own sports desk in favor of coverage from writers in a non-unionized newsroom with an emphasis on digital platforms is indicative of the dynamism in today’s media market. Moreover, it has the potential to redefine sports journalism and endanger the posterity of the industry. The New York Times Guild intends to fight the resolution with, in its own words, “every tool we have.”

“Times leadership is attempting to outsource union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument that The Times can ‘subcontract’ its sports coverage to itself,” The New York Times Guild said in a statement. “Management gave the Guild virtually no notice of this change. Many members learned of the company’s decision in a Times news alert that popped up on our phones minutes into a meeting called to inform sports staff of our department’s dissolution.”

The move to eradicate the newspaper’s sports department comes just one day after the Los Angeles Times announced a reimagined sports section to its newspaper, doubling down on its commitment to impactful sports journalism. Readers will be immersed in a similar feel to a magazine, better suited to showcase sportswriting and sports photography.

As a result, box scores, standings and traditional game stories are going by the wayside for more in-depth reporting, opinion columns and profiles. The publication will offer traditional features of sports reporting on its digital platforms instead, contrasting with the approach The New York Times has decided to take.

“Our essential subscription strategy is working, even at a moment of considerable pressure on our industry,” The New York Times Company stated. “By finding new ways to serve readers and their passions, we’ve been able to continue to grow as a company and to add nearly 1,000 journalism jobs in recent years, half of which have been in the Times newsroom and half in The Athletic and Wirecutter newsrooms.”

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