OT: ESPN firings continued with a big one...

[spudzj6]

Not sure if this has been put out there on the BY yet...

John Clayton out - guy had over 20 years there, and is in the NFL hall of fame (note: writer's wing)...what is ESPN doing with guys who actually report on sports these days??

 

[Huskyforlife]

He doesn't do much anymore, they were probably paying too much.

 

[Rocktheworld]

His ESPN commercial where he's really a metal-head with a 2-foot braid eating ramen out of his room at mom's house was one of my favorites

 

[huskymedic]

His ESPN commercial where he's really a metal-head with a 2-foot braid eating ramen out of his room at mom's house was one of my favorites

John Clayton‏ @ClaytonESPN 19m 19 minutes ago
By the way I am keeping the ponytail

 

[Huskyforlife]

His ESPN commercial where he's really a metal-head with a 2-foot braid eating ramen out of his room at mom's house was one of my favorites

That's an all time great for them. I love the studio set up in his room.

 

[superjohn]

His ESPN commercial where he's really a metal-head with a 2-foot braid eating ramen out of his room at mom's house was one of my favorites

I'll also remember all the times that loser Sean Salisbury tried to bully him.

 

[Chin Diesel]

ESPN is shredding one trick ponies.

He covered one sport and was vulnerable.

Multisport and multiplatform or gone.

 

[NielsisGood]

I'll also remember all the times that loser Sean Salisbury tried to bully him.

That time Salisbury called him crypt keeper was epic.

 

[4in16]

He looked like a rooster.

 

[JSM1970]

I honestly don't know how Golic and his idiot kid kept their gigs

 

[UConnSwag11]

ESPN is shredding one trick ponies.

He covered one sport and was vulnerable.

Multisport and multiplatform or gone.

You'd rather have Stephen A Smith instead of Clayton?

 

[intlzncster]

ESPN is shredding one trick ponies. He covered one sport and was vulnerable.

Which basically translates to shredding all expertise.

 

[NielsisGood]

You'd rather have Stephen A Smith instead of Clayton?

Casuals actually care about Stephen A. When's the last time anyone has talked about John Clayton?

 

[FartMan69]

Why is ESPN continuing to go down their current road? It's like they're doubling down on the reasons why people don't tune in anymore. Most casual sport fans are morons but even they don't want to see actors argue about things a million percent out of their control.

 

[Robertelamin]

Why is ESPN continuing to go down their current road? It's like they're doubling down on the reasons why people don't tune in anymore. Most casual sport fans are morons but even they don't want to see actors argue about things a million percent out of their control.

They are all in on sports personalities/opinions. John Clayton is going to continue his job somewhere else but now they don't have to pay him and ESPN can steal is scoop if there is anything controversial and have First Take, PTI and Around the Horn debate it. At least I think that is their thinking.

 

[UChusky916]

Clayton's best contribution to ESPN:

 

[Chin Diesel]

ESPN is shredding one trick ponies.

He covered one sport and was vulnerable.

Multisport and multiplatform or gone.

You'd rather have Stephen A Smith instead of Clayton?

Which basically translates to shredding all expertise.

ESPN said as much last month during the big blood letting. They are looking for "talent" that can be used for multiple sports and in print, radio and TV. The individual sport experts in baseball, NFL and hockey got slaughtered. As did their ESPN.com writers.

Sadly, ESPN will show you data that SAS generates clicks and viewers.

I don't listen to anything except games on ESPN.

 

[80shusky]

Casuals actually care about Stephen A. When's the last time anyone has talked about John Clayton?

So once again it is about the casual fan?

 

[NielsisGood]

So once again it is about the casual fan?

It pretty clearly has been for quite some time. There's popular sites that do deep analysis or long columns for individual sports, and there's twitter/apps (even espn's own app) for breaking news/scores/clips. The best ESPN can hope to do now is react to news in a way that draws viewers.

 

[Northbound]

So once again it is about the casual fan?

Yes because hardcore sports fans (like all of us here) get the info on their teams/athletes from a variety of other sources - blogs, forums, tweeter, etc. Casual fan can just jump to ESPN and get the topical info they need and hey keep fans like the ones on here engaged with games.

There's also the fact that there's a lot fewer hardcore sports fans than casuals. I can't remember the numbers because it's been a long time, but the vast majority of folks don't care about hearing X guy and Y guy discuss the merits of the 2-3 zone or how to run a delayed break.

 

[B1GEast]

ESPN overpaid for their NFL contract and it doesn't matter how many people they cut, they will probably never be profitable again.

This is a slow bleed

 

[Walker11]

So once again it is about the casual fan?

Isn't the goal to reach as many people as possible? This is pretty obvious. I certainly don't, but people want to hear what the Steven A' s of the world say. Now Greenberg and Jemele/Michael on the other hand...What is ESPN thinking?

 

[JayKoz]

ESPN overpaid for their NFL contract and it doesn't matter how many people they cut, they will probably never be profitable again.

This is a slow bleed

It's not just NFL

 

[Northbound]

Don't kid yourself, it's not that they aren't profitable, it's that they aren't profitable like they once were and are facing unique challenges to the business, which they'll figure out over time. ESPN’s profits are declining, but it is still profitable and its revenue and number of employees are still both growing - there is no hiring freeze. They laid off 100 or so folks - in April Coke announced it was going to let go 1,200 folks this year. I don't think that the last three cuts at ESPN amounted to that many people - it's was like 500, 300, and now 100 - for a look at layoffs look here - www.dailyjobcuts.com

In '16 ESPN ranked as the highest-rated cable network among men and adults between ages 18 and 54, and second among total viewers in primetime and this was in an election year. It's still a huge engine for TWDC, but not as much as it once was and it's unlikely that they'll enjoy the gobs of cash that came from the dual revenue streams of the past, but they are certainly working with the leagues and the MSO's to figure out how to replace the loss of subscriber revenue.

 

[Deepster]

Clayton wasn't outstanding. He was good.....with an awesome commercial in his past. I am a huge fantasy football and DFS guy and I never relied on Clayton for any last minute updates.