Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Due to sinking cable subscription fees, expensive rights fees for the NFL, NBA, and college bowl season, and increased personnel costs, ESPN is laying off over 100 people, many of them high-profile people that provide lots of content and analysis the talking heads do not. The biggest ones affecting the Pac-12 are Ted Miller and Chantel Jennings, who contributed heavily to the Pac-12 blog. That blog is now basically down to Kyle Bonagura and David Lombardi, which makes the blog way too Bay Area-heavy and likely means content will be few and far between on the non-CA schools.

http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-e ... 1794664091

Lombardi sucks.

I couldn't understand how they could afford to dish out the billions of dollars for all of the "networks" like the Longhorn Network, SEC network...etc that they were buying up. I just didn't see how they would ever get a return on investment with that unless those networks were providing A LOT more entertainment value than the Pac12 network. It doesn't surprise me to see this move. It seems like this is possibly the beginning of the end for ESPN. Shedding talent doesn't seem to be the best way to save the brand. People don't like ESPN anymore and getting rid of some of the staff isn't going to change that. Making it more TMZ like isn't going to fix it either. I don't have faith that they have a solid plan for any sort of resurgence.

Lombardi is gone too.

Anatinae wrote:Lombardi is gone too.

Dang. With how many of their bloggers they're getting rid of, I think those may go by the wayside, save for maybe the ones covering the SEC and Big 12.

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

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Mark May is worse.

FlDuckFan wrote:

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

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Mark May is worse.

Yes Mark May is worse, he only looked good standing next to Lou Holtz

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

Interesting you bring up that analogy, I've felt the more of the 538 and political content I see the less I want to visit the site period. Shame that Miller is gone, thought he was easily one of their better writers in general even if he's not necessarily an in depth analysis guy.

They need to cut some weight by going on the Maduro diet anyways. Lol.

Duck07 wrote:

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

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Interesting you bring up that analogy, I've felt the more of the 538 and political content I see the less I want to visit the site period. Shame that Miller is gone, thought he was easily one of their better writers in general even if he's not necessarily an in depth analysis guy.

They need to cut some weight by going on the Maduro diet anyways. Lol.

I rarely watch ESPN outside of actual sporting events which is a crazy thought for me given how much I watched in the past. Watching SportsCenter when I went to bed was a part of the routine just like brushing my teeth. Things started to turn for me when they started hyping the Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith's of the sports community and putting them front and center. Watching two idiots yell at each other wasn't my idea of entertainment. ESPN was at its best when they had the Stuart Scott's and Dan Patrick's of the world. Guys who were actually entertaining to watch talk about sports.

They tried to revive that with some young talent and had some great young talent that they just let go. People who actually had personality on the air and could make me laugh when they were showing highlights and not talking politics. I'm not a "stick to sports" guy at all but it did get old having sportscenter cram every social issue LeBron talked/tweeted about down my throat. On top of that, the constant fellating of LeBron and the NFL got old and this coming from a LeBron fan.

They should have fired some of the executives that put ESPN in this position but it's never the execs who get culled. I bet they could have cut four execs and their compensation would have equaled the 100 that they laid off.

Alan wrote:

FlDuckFan wrote:

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

Mark May is worse.

Yes Mark May is worse, he only looked good standing next to Lou Holtz

Lou Holtz was the worst...

Did our brother Neil survive?

ya I saw Neil on with Kenny Mayne tonight, I like them two. Mark May got the boot today for you who don't like him

They only have 3 anchors in La. Neil, Stan and Kenny does vacation relief. Last year they remodeled the studio, hopefully they are safe for a long time. If you ever watch Kenny talk about oregon, he always mentions that we broke his leg, when he was the qb at unlv

Biggus Duckus wrote:Smells very much like the government cutting of small but crucial programs to make ends meet, but instead of paying for a wall they are paying for Mark May. I don't know which is worse.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

I think Mark May is gone too

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Mark-M ... N-52518190

According to this Mark is out but I don't see anything from a major outlet.

Danny Kanell is a shocker. I hardly ever agreed with him but I truly enjoyed hearing his take