ESPN lays off Zach Lowe

[Scoot McGroot]

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Felt important enough to get its own thread. Wild news.

[balsamic_ducks]

what a gigantic mistake.

[Texas Chuck]

Sucks. I guess his salary is high and he doesn't appeal to casual fans nearly as well as he appeals to us. And quality isn't a priority obviously. Luckily he will always have an outlet as a podcaster and someone will pay him to write.

[ProcessDoctor]

Wow. I really like Zach and he seems very connected with the league. More money for the casual attention-seeking talking heads on their network.

[Clav]

It's really depressingly expected that ESPN panders to betting lines and hot takes over a decent writer or commentator. As Chuck said, Lowe will have a place somewhere to ply his trade.

Honestly I think Zach was a bit out of place trying to talk to Perkins and whoever else ESPN threw on there because the other talking heads would just hot take around points and Zach had to bring himself to that level, or give a futile effort to sway them with solid analysis. It was never going to work long term, he needs more level headed discourse around him to flourish.

[parsnips33]

Hopefully won't be writing behind a paywall anymore, but I doubt it

Substack?

[HornetJail]

ESPN continues to thin out everyone that isn't a clickbait hack

[SkyHook]

Wow. I continue to not be a fan of ESPN's NBA related decision making.

[NW]

The Athletic and the Ringer will have dueling racing Brinks trucks heading to his house to hire the guy. Maybe Yahoo too.

ESPN hitched their wagon to McAfee and Stephen A.

[QMemphis]

Zach is one best in media, I’m sure he will land on his feet. This says alot for ESPN, losing Woj and Zach. Bobby and Bontemps are the only serious guys they have left.

[HartfordWhalers]

The fact that ESPN had him for so long was what amazed me. He has been so good and analytical and interesting that he always felt destined for more of a niche market. But such a shame to lose him being so much at the center of the reporting world.

[toooskies]

I think they are clearing their books to make Shams an offer he can't refuse.

[yosemiteben]

I think they are clearing their books to make Shams an offer he can't refuse.

How is Shams bringing more value than Zach? Does ESPN really draw significant revenue from Shams breaking news from his Twitter feed?

[jbk1234]

I think they are clearing their books to make Shams an offer he can't refuse.

I suspect they're trimming payroll to help mitigate the costs of the rights they just purchased. They had to bid because ESPN without NBA rights wouldn't get anywhere near the carriage fees they get now, but the TV networks don't really make their money back through advertising anymore. Not when they're that high.

[shrink]

I think they are clearing their books to make Shams an offer he can't refuse.

How is Shams bringing more value than Zach? Does ESPN really draw significant revenue from Shams breaking news from his Twitter feed?

You could be right, but I suspect the old-school newsies liked the fact that stories started with “ESPN’s Adrian Wojnorowksi has reported that …!” Woj left them, not the other way around. But maybe management is just going for personalities these days?

I’m going to really miss Zach. I think it was just last week that Smitty mentioned how much he likes him, and how you need to listen to every word because he drops in insider nuggets from his connections, even when he’s talking about other things. But for me, he was a perfect combination of informed insider, clear thinker, and passionate fan. You could tell Zach loved the NBA, and he was always trying to learn more. Losing Zach pushes my low opinion of ESPN even lower.

[toooskies]

I think they are clearing their books to make Shams an offer he can't refuse.

How is Shams bringing more value than Zach? Does ESPN really draw significant revenue from Shams breaking news from his Twitter feed?

You could be right, but I suspect the old-school newsies liked the fact that stories started with “ESPN’s Adrian Wojnorowksi has reported that …!” Woj left them, not the other way around. But maybe management is just going for personalities these days?

I’m going to really miss Zach. I think it was just last week that Smitty mentioned how much he likes him, and how you need to listen to every word because he drops in insider nuggets from his connections, even when he’s talking about other things. But for me, he was a perfect combination of informed insider, clear thinker, and passionate fan. You could tell Zach loved the NBA, and he was always trying to learn more. Losing Zach pushes my low opinion of ESPN even lower.

Yep. ESPN has value as a sports network but also as the leading source of news, which drives their online revenues. Woj probably had 5x the number of articles on ESPN.com and contract/trade news is a better a traffic driver than longer-form analysis.

[One_and_Done]

I used to listen to Lowe all the time, but he's gone downhill in recent years. Either that or the quality of other options has gone up, and he doesn't stand out as much anymore. Nate Duncan is vastly better for example. Lowe doesn't get interviews with GMs/owners anymore either. He was at his peak interviewing the likes of Cuban, SVG, and Neil Oshey all in the span of a few weeks.

[theBigLip]

ESPN thought SportsCenter would dominate forever and support the entire company. That was a mistake. So every year they keep trimming content and raising the cost of ESPN+. Pay more, get less. I dropped my subscription this year - I’ll just pay for The NY Times and get the Athletic.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Honestly, HartfordWhalers has it right. (I know, HW, I know...)

Good sports analysis available to the masses is generally not paid or ad-supported content -- and this is the real issue. Sports media personalities, like sports media itself, have been operating within a bubble that's been bound to burst. For those contrasting him with blowhards and click-bait specialists... yeah, those guys don't deserve their relative job security, but when the pie shrinks, the entertainers are going to outlast the analysts.

Part of me can't be too sad about a guy making big bucks for an impressive duration plying a trade that really isn't seven figures of value-add for his employer. Now he can come post at RealGM or blog or podcast or whatever. No, that's too far. I'm not saying we deserve his content for free, necessarily, but it's a much bigger issue to me that most good sports analysis IS free than the prospect of a guy not raking in a massive salary for it anymore. There seem to be three pools of sports analysis: free Web content, paid or ad-supported media, and jealously-guarded, professional, league-paid content (i.e., analysis teams hire guys or pay services for). We should want a middle ground of modestly priced content from fairly paid creators, but are we going to subscribe to Doctor MJ's Patreon?

Not sure where I'm going with this. I want Zach Lowe to do what he does and get paid for it. But the idea that he or his ilk can thrive in something like the ESPN ecosystem just strikes me as fanciful. He's not a millionaire entertainer. But neither should he or ElGee be unpaid for what they do for us. I don't have a good answer.

[Texas Chuck]

I used to listen to Lowe all the time, but he's gone downhill in recent years. Either that or the quality of other options has gone up, and he doesn't stand out as much anymore. Nate Duncan is vastly better for example. Lowe doesn't get interviews with GMs/owners anymore either. He was at his peak interviewing the likes of Cuban, SVG, and Neil Oshey all in the span of a few weeks.

Guessing you love Portnoy and listen to Rogan religiously.

Duncan is an arrogant blowhard who talks over his guests, is horrible to his co-host and is only after how much he can grift. Lowe loves basketball, has great contacts, values his guests, and communicates basketball as well as anyone.

But you aren't alone. Those loud mouths are very popular. But Nate Duncan? Ugh