b_line
Well-Known Member
No one will ever really know the truth about that topic and "bad" is obviously relative.
I think the issue was that the cost to produce the content was probably higher than the traffic generated justified. Simmons has demonstrated in his own venture that he's able to get a lot more sponsors (and presumably revenue) for his podcasting than ESPN ever was. It could be that ESPN was crappy at monetizing the golden goose of high end content. Grantland is going to be something that, in ten years, young people are going to get really tired of hearing about. It will effectively be a legend from a different time.
It's going to be our generation's version of the National sports Daily
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Sports_Daily
Simmons is obsessed with the National. His first piece at grant land was an oral history of the national. He wanted to work there or be a Boston Globe sports writer while in college. He probably didn't understand his potential.