Grantland.com by Bill Simmons

[mordecai]

Anyone else excited about the launch?

 

[embowafa]

THAT's the name of the website?

I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Oldboy]

Looking forward to this, I'm hoping to see more written articles by Simmons. I hate listening to podcasts.

 

[Rambo]

I haven't been keeping up with his stuff - what is this supposed to be?

 

[milosz]

It's going to be ESPN's counter to Deadspin/SportsNation/etc..

 

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Rambo

I haven't been keeping up with his stuff - what is this supposed to be?
Simmons edits The New Yorker. The firepower they have is insane: Eggers, Klosterman, Gladwell. The problem is that most readers are going to flock there expecting MOAR SIMMONS, and they will be disappoint.

 

[Rambo]

He edits the NewYorker? The whole thing or just a certain section?

 

[LawrenceMD]

Originally Posted by Rambo

He edits the NewYorker? The whole thing or just a certain section?
no, but some of the contributors are NewYorker super duper-alums (think Gladwell)... essentially its a younger/looser/sporty-ier vanity fair/spy magazine in Deadspin/Huffington Post form. it should work. especially since he's got a murderers row of contributors... normally someone like gladwell/Klosterman will do their own thing... but since it has such good backing (espn monolith) and looks like a "we're all friends on a college campus" feel everyone's game.

 

[mordecai]

Originally Posted by embowafa

THAT's the name of the website?

I'll definitely check it out.

Weird, right? Like naming a site on art writing "Clement"

 

[gladhands]

Grantland will also have a podcasting netwoork. A lot of talented writers are going to eat off the mouse's dime until they decide to pull the plug.

 

[Biggskip]

Overall I'm pretty excited, but the first two "teaser" columns they had a couple of weeks ago were pretty weak tit.

I think Simmons really likes the Podcast format and that is why he has gravitated to it so much over the past few years. Each podcast probably takes as much, if not less, prep work than a column. The podcast itself lasts about an hour, there's a little bit of editing, and finally it "goes to air". The podcasting process is much less work.

The unfortunate thing about Grantland, for me personally, is that it is just another sign in how much he has strayed away from his column over the past five years. In the past five years he has: written two books, started the podcast, acted as executive producer on 30 for 30, and now started Grantland. He realizes as much as anybody that if he wants to make real money that he has to do less and less of what made him big to begin with and branch out into more and more of these types of ventures.

I hope Grantland is a success because I want him to do well, but it's too bad that it will come at the cost of fewer and fewer columns.

 

[CFunk]

He's already previewed two columns on espn.com. I believe one was a summer movie preview and the other was a reaction piece to melo's trade to NY.

 

[milosz]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Simmons edits The New Yorker. The firepower they have is insane: Eggers, Klosterman, Gladwell.

The problem is that most readers are going to flock there expecting MOAR SIMMONS, and they will be disappoint.

What? Bill Simmons doesn't edit the New Yorker. His only connection to the magazine, so far as I know, is his weird bromance with that hack Gladwell.

 

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by milosz

What? Bill Simmons doesn't edit the New Yorker. His only connection to the magazine, so far as I know, is his weird bromance with that hack Gladwell.

I was saying that Grantland is what would happened if Simmons edited The New Yorker.

 

[milosz]

If Simmons edited the New Yorker it would be a sports blog featuring two people who've never regularly written for the New Yorker? (also an appropriate sentiment if you inserted the name of any other media property for the New Yorker! Bill Simmons edits Mother Jones! Bill Simmons edits Aryan Nation Weekly!)


Whatever, all three of those are ******* insufferable. I'll stick to Deadspin and Rob Neyer's baseball blog network.