Grantland, R.I.P.
By
Not shocking news, but still highly regrettable. I had thought that ESPN might keep it going just to show that they didn’t need Simmons, but since the ridiculously petty editing of the NFL podcast and the ensuing boycott, it was pretty clear that the site was (to invoke Erik’s favorite songwriter) just waiting around to die.
The lesson of Grantland is a simple one. While discussions of sites tend to focus on questions of site philosophy (“is data journalism any good?” being the obvious recent perennial), fundamentally if you find and develop talent they will do good work. I shared the basic ex ante skepticism of people like Lund and Scocca — I didn’t really understand what Simmons was trying to do. But this didn’t matter because Simmons had a really, really good eye for talent and he didn’t try to force anybody into his voice. The flagship writers for the major American sports — Barnwell, Keri, Lowe — are the gold standard, every one a home run. The primary NHL writers, Baker and McIndoe, are not quite as analytically cutting-edge as the aforementioned but are excellent just the same. He buried the hatchet with Charlie Pierce to all of our benefit. The pop culture side was a little bit more hit-or-miss, but there was still a formidable array of talent: Morris, Lambert, Pappademas, Browne, Greenwald, Serrano, and I could go on. As Jeb also conceded, whatever the theory it worked in practice.
And also credit Simmons with the good sense to abandon initial plans when they didn’t work, most notably the famous writers he initially planned to build the site around. Gladwell and Eggers ended up having pretty much nothing to do with the site. Klosterman was largely shuttled to NBA podcasts after his widely and justly derided Merrill Garbus essay. He knew what was working and what wasn’t.
Sure, the editor’s vision matters at the margin. The site had more coverage of pro wrestling and third-rate action movies than I might otherwise prefer. But Simmons knew talent when he saw it, and I have to give him credit for using his clout to protect a highly accomplished loss leader. Most of these writers will find a good home — the sports ones presumably at ESPN while their contracts are in force — but when a an excellent journalistic enterprise with good jobs shuts down, it’s a sad day.