Tim Stephens leaving CBS

[Moderator1]

so says the still-active Moddy Pipeline. Have reached out to Tim for some details, will post when I have them or he will post himself.

Tony Moss, another of their top editors, is heading to ESPN. So there may be some high-level openings there soon

Two good guys. I've worked with both, think highly of them.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

so says the still-active Moddy Pipeline. Have reached out to Tim for some details, will post when I have them or he will post himself.

Tony Moss, another of their top editors, is heading to ESPN. So there may be some high-level openings there soon

Two good guys. I've worked with both, think highly of them.

Great guy.

CBS Sports is in trouble. There's no question this ship is sinking.

 

[da man]

so says the still-active Moddy Pipeline. Have reached out to Tim for some details, will post when I have them or he will post himself.

Tony Moss, another of their top editors, is heading to ESPN. So there may be some high-level openings there soon

Two good guys. I've worked with both, think highly of them.

Great guy.

CBS Sports is in trouble. There's no question this ship is be sinking.

Fixed.

 

[Wonderlic]

Stephens is a speaker at the national college media convention this weekend in Philadelphia. He's listed as a representative of Sportsmanias.com and APSE.

http://collegemedia14.com/schedule-2/

According to the interwebz, Miami-based Sportsmanias, founded in 2012, "is a sports news aggregator that combines a dynamic mix of 24/7 professional beatwriter news with team and athlete tweets, videos, photos and personalized feeds to meet every diehard's interest. The site for team inside scoop and social interaction among sports fans, complemented by a mobile app for iOS and Android."

 

[blacktitleist]

wow.

Tony was my supervisor for the RapidReports stuff I did there a few years back. Loved working with him and the opportunities he gave me during the brief run we had before they pulled the plug.

Super-organized and a straight shooter. I wish him well at the Mothership.

 

[MileHigh]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

 

[Cigar56]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

I think CBS Corporate lowered the salary cap for CBSSports.com. Sites like Bleacher Report have been way outperforming CBS in terms of money spent on salaries vs. revenue produced by the site, and the beancounters at CBS finally caught on. At the end of the day, it is a business, and that's the harsh reality the team in Ft. Lauderdale is facing now.

 

[black dude with pompano]

My free advice to SportsManias is to think about getting a new name.

 

[Fran Curci]

@Black dude with pompano: I agree on the name. Perhaps you've thought of something shorter, yourself?

 

[Ace]

@Black dude with pompano: I agree on the name. Perhaps you've thought of something shorter, yourself?

Maybe shorten it to S&M?

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

I think CBS Corporate lowered the salary cap for CBSSports.com. Sites like Bleacher Report have been way outperforming CBS in terms of money spent on salaries vs. revenue produced by the site, and the beancounters at CBS finally caught on. At the end of the day, it is a business, and that's the harsh reality the team in Ft. Lauderdale is facing now.

Sadly. CBS Sports had started doing some of the things people have criticized Bleacher Report for. Why people feel the need to take someone else's story and re-write it with a CBS Sports byline even when credit is given is pathetic.

The people there with the best job security are probably the top fantasy people.

 

[FreddiePatek]

I'm guessing we go about another six months before CBS devolves entirely into a fantasy sports site

 

[Alma]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

I think CBS Corporate lowered the salary cap for CBSSports.com. Sites like Bleacher Report have been way outperforming CBS in terms of money spent on salaries vs. revenue produced by the site, and the beancounters at CBS finally caught on. At the end of the day, it is a business, and that's the harsh reality the team in Ft. Lauderdale is facing now.

Sadly. CBS Sports had started doing some of the things people have criticized Bleacher Report for. Why people feel the need to take someone else's story and re-write it with a CBS Sports byline even when credit is given is pathetic.

The people there with the best job security are probably the top fantasy people.

They hadn't gamed SEOs, though. That's how Bleacher Report gets traffic.

CBS Sports was/is decent, but it's much harder to make money on a free Web site. Period, end of story. All of these Web sites are, essentially, boutique projects. Vehicles of reminding readers of the TV content.

You will notice, though, many of these folks find landing places pretty quick. One you reach that echelon, you have a name, and it'll travel all over. It can be a pain, switching jobs. A serious pain. But they find jobs. And, invariably, a lot of them land at ESPN.

When ala carte cable comes one day, I just wonder what kind of bloodletting is going to take place at ESPN. I can't imagine.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

I think CBS Corporate lowered the salary cap for CBSSports.com. Sites like Bleacher Report have been way outperforming CBS in terms of money spent on salaries vs. revenue produced by the site, and the beancounters at CBS finally caught on. At the end of the day, it is a business, and that's the harsh reality the team in Ft. Lauderdale is facing now.

Sadly. CBS Sports had started doing some of the things people have criticized Bleacher Report for. Why people feel the need to take someone else's story and re-write it with a CBS Sports byline even when credit is given is pathetic.

The people there with the best job security are probably the top fantasy people.

They hadn't gamed SEOs, though. That's how Bleacher Report gets traffic.

CBS Sports was/is decent, but it's much harder to make money on a free Web site. Period, end of story. All of these Web sites are, essentially, boutique projects. Vehicles of reminding readers of the TV content.

You will notice, though, many of these folks find landing places pretty quick. One you reach that echelon, you have a name, and it'll travel all over. It can be a pain, switching jobs. A serious pain. But they find jobs. And, invariably, a lot of them land at ESPN.

When ala carte cable comes one day, I just wonder what kind of bloodletting is going to take place at ESPN. I can't imagine.

Agree completely. The bigger names from CBS Sports all fall into the top 1 percent in the business, and the people who reach that echelon will always be able to find jobs assuming they're willing to move around. That goes for the editors and the guys like Fowler, Prisco etc.

I don't think it goes for the underlings who have been working there for $500 a week and no benefits and that's the bulk of the people there.

 

[Alma]

Some serious hemorrhaging going on down there. Best of luck to both.

I think CBS Corporate lowered the salary cap for CBSSports.com. Sites like Bleacher Report have been way outperforming CBS in terms of money spent on salaries vs. revenue produced by the site, and the beancounters at CBS finally caught on. At the end of the day, it is a business, and that's the harsh reality the team in Ft. Lauderdale is facing now.

Sadly. CBS Sports had started doing some of the things people have criticized Bleacher Report for. Why people feel the need to take someone else's story and re-write it with a CBS Sports byline even when credit is given is pathetic.

The people there with the best job security are probably the top fantasy people.

They hadn't gamed SEOs, though. That's how Bleacher Report gets traffic.

CBS Sports was/is decent, but it's much harder to make money on a free Web site. Period, end of story. All of these Web sites are, essentially, boutique projects. Vehicles of reminding readers of the TV content.

You will notice, though, many of these folks find landing places pretty quick. One you reach that echelon, you have a name, and it'll travel all over. It can be a pain, switching jobs. A serious pain. But they find jobs. And, invariably, a lot of them land at ESPN.

When ala carte cable comes one day, I just wonder what kind of bloodletting is going to take place at ESPN. I can't imagine.

Agree completely. The bigger names from CBS Sports all fall into the top 1 percent in the business, and the people who reach that echelon will always be able to find jobs assuming they're willing to move around. That goes for the editors and the guys like Fowler, Prisco etc.

I don't think it goes for the underlings who have been working there for $500 a week and no benefits and that's the bulk of the people there.

I feel for those folks. I really do.

There aren't a lot of stable jobs anywhere anymore. In any industry. This one. Other ones. Any one. It's not there. Even the safest ones...not really. That's America now. More profit, more work, more pressure, more idolization of success. It is not specific to journalism. It's endemic to our culture now.

Job security's pretty good on SCOTUS, I guess, considering one dude routinely falls asleep or stares at the ceiling. Only 9 of those slots, though.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

ESPN has been remarkably secure (for writers and talent at least). They just keep adding and adding and adding. You have to wonder how long that will continue.

 

[FileNotFound]

ESPN has been remarkably secure (for writers and talent at least). They just keep adding and adding and adding. You have to wonder how long that will continue.

At least for as long as ESPN can double-dip on ad revenue and cable subscription fees.

 

[Matt Stephens]

ESPN has been remarkably secure (for writers and talent at least). They just keep adding and adding and adding. You have to wonder how long that will continue.

A lot of the writers at ESPN are contracted and far from secure. There have been cuts fairly recently, I believe. As I was told by one of its now-columnist when interviewing there following graduation, "Even ESPN isn't recession-proof."

 

[daemon]

ESPN has been remarkably secure (for writers and talent at least). They just keep adding and adding and adding. You have to wonder how long that will continue.

The thing that makes ESPN secure is that it needs the credibility it gets from the professional journalists it employs. It realizes the dividends reaped from those reporters salaries cannot be measured in page views. None of the other major media sports sites are attempting to sell themselves as the outlet of record. If a writer isn't paying his own salary via page views, or bolstering the image of partners, they have little reason to retain him or her.

 

[steveu]

The thing that's funny (not funny ha ha, but funny strange) is I've seen stories that say page views are out and other ways of engaging the audience are in.

With so many companies, including ours, embracing page views, we're all screwed if this turns out to be true.