The Ringer is Live

[exmediahack]

As I read over the names who signed this, outside of one or two, who could leave there and, substantially, negatively impact the revenue-producing part of The Ringer?

Sometimes in this business, you work to have the name of the company on your resume. Then you make the money at the next shop. Any ESPNEWS anchor can attest to this.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

 

[Inky_Wretch]

At The Ringer, Staff Writers Say They Are Second-String

 

[PaperClip529]

I wonder if this makes the celebs with podcast reconsider their approach. Those retired athletes all belonged to a union at one point and I don't know if "union buster" is something that they or Jemele want attached to their brands. Maybe the celebs don't care, but I would have to imagine that they could get podcasts elsewhere. It will be hard to hear Rachel Lindsay and Van Lathan speak up for the disenfranchised while they are also being used to screw over the no-names at the company that produces their podcast.

 

[LanceyHoward]

No raises, more work and laughed at when asking for promotion.... the ringer is every newsroom in the country after all

I think that one mistake a lot of mid-sized organizations like the Ringer make is to de emphasize the importance of a good HR director. When a start up is created there is a feeling that an HR director is not a revenue producer and the whole function is ignored. Employees are caught up in the excitement of the start-up and are generally happy.

But then the organization grows and at some point someone needs to figure out issues like promotion paths and sexual harassment policies.

 

[Webster]

I would assume the entire profits are made by the podcasts and that the website itself, while often producing very good content, is a credibility earning drag on the bottom line.

 

[Alma]

At The Ringer, Staff Writers Say They Are Second-String

They are. Eventually they’ll just be cut. A free Web site is not sustainable.

Further, culture writing has fallen off a cliff in recent years. The left is so infatuated with Trump, Trump, Trump - and later pandemic, pandemic, pandemic - that the finer points of some album or a NBA rotation don’t have the same teeth into an audience. Increasingly, too, culture writers have to be tricky not to upset the leftist wing of readership.

first-grade right wing culture nuts are thus grabbing more of a foothold. Ben Shapiro is often wrong, but he’s free to opine as he pleases. People are drawn to that freedom.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

We have yuge problems going on right now. Maybe Bill will come to understand it's not really a great time for "An Oral History of Mrs. Doubtfire."

Disabuse yourself of the idea Trump is interesting enough on his own to warrant what you call infatuation.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

 

[MeanGreenATO]

So, I found this kind of bizarre: The Ringer did a story on Hank Aaron and included a line about the nickname "Hammer" being a tool and Aaron solely viewed as a workman. It seemed like a very strange reach.

The story was written by someone who just graduated from school and never held a full-time gig before this one. Is it just me or is The Ringer assigning this to a story to someone with that level of experience a little too much?

Hank Aaron Forced America to Change. It Never Changed Enough.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I for one cannot believe ageist Bill Simmons hired someone with zero professional experience and lacking the expertise necessary to put a story into its proper historical perspective.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Send him to a Coach K press conference.

 

[sgreenwell]

So, I found this kind of bizarre: The Ringer did a story on Hank Aaron and included a line about the nickname "Hammer" being a tool and Aaron solely viewed as a workman. It seemed like a very strange reach.

The story was written by someone who just graduated from school and never held a full-time gig before this one. Is it just me or is The Ringer assigning this to a story to someone with that level of experience a little too much?

Hank Aaron Forced America to Change. It Never Changed Enough.

I think they assigned it to (maybe?) one of their few people of color on staff. I mean, as of late, Simmons has been in a passive-aggressive pissing match with his own union. The independent contractors they have for podcasts are somewhat racially diverse, but I doubt the news desk can ask one of them to handle an obit on Aaron. That writer's other pieces are about Lovecraft Country (TV) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (film), so I'm not sure how much they knew about Aaron going into it, and it reads like they just dumped everything into the piece from half a day's worth of web research.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

I think they assigned it to (maybe?) one of their few people of color on staff. I mean, as of late, Simmons has been in a passive-aggressive pissing match with his own union. The independent contractors they have for podcasts are somewhat racially diverse, but I doubt the news desk can ask one of them to handle an obit on Aaron. That writer's other pieces are about Lovecraft Country (TV) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (film), so I'm not sure how much they knew about Aaron going into it, and it reads like they just dumped everything into the piece from half a day's worth of web research.

the crazy thing is there’s a half decent story in there. A column on “what does Hank Aaron and his legacy mean to POC who’s only tangentally a baseball fan.” I would read that over a half done obit. Who’s going to the Ringer looking for a traditional obit?