Sportswriters have long lamented the fickleness of sports stars, those ingrates whose loyalty can be bought by the highest bidder.
But 2007 was also a year when high-profile writers (and some announcers) did some job jumping themselves.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map 
(requires Java)
“It’s the exact same model as what happened to athletes,” Leigh Steinberg, a sports agent, told the New York Times. “We’re seeing free agency for sports journalists.”
The movement showed that in the new media age there’s still a demand for people who can write. It doesn’t hurt, though, if they can also talk on camera and if they know their way around the Internet.
It certainly counts if you’ve become a brand yourself, recognizable and bankable like Rick Reilly, the longtime number one columnist at Sports Illustrated.
Reilly jilted Sports Illustrated for ESPN, the cable sports network and Internet power. He’ll keep busy writing a column in ESPN The Magazine. He’ll also write for ESPN.com. And he’ll appear on the cable network’s “SportsCenter.”
“For a guy who loves sports, ESPN is the ultimate,” Reilly said at the time his move was announced in October. “I feel like a mouse locked in a cheese store. I don’t know where to start first. I’m thrilled with the opportunity to speak to a whole new audience in a whole new way.”
Reportedly, Reilly, who begins at ESPN next June, will be paid $2 million a year for five years. He had been the highest paid Sports Illustrated writer at $1 million a year.
Reilly has other irons in the fire, as well. He’s the co-author of the movie Leatherheads. Scheduled for release this coming spring, it stars George Clooney and Renee Zellweger.
Shortly before Reilly’s move to ESPN, Dan Patrick of ESPN switched to Sports Illustrated.
The host of “SportsCenter” from 1989 to 2006, Patrick will be a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. And he’ll do work for SI.Com.
In addition, Patrick has been hosting a sports talk show in Los Angeles since October.
Selena Roberts, a sports columnist the Times for several years, will join Patrick at Sports Illustrated. Her switch to the magazine was announced in November.
“I ask you to join me in mourning yet another major loss to daily print sports journalism,” wrote Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe in reacting to Roberts’ move.
In this recent wave of hiring, ESPN would seem to be outbidding Sports Illustrated.
The Times reports that the network is paying between $150,000 to $300,000 for some new hires, much more for others. Newspapers, it reports, can’t match the offers.
In a story Friday in The Wall Street Journal, Adam Thompson described several staff additions at the sports network, most of which seem to reflect a move toward more serious journalism.
“(ESPN) is bulking up on content,” Thompson wrote. “… The idea is to serve up breaking news and expert analysis, aggressively blanketing TV, the Internet, the magazine and even cell phones.”
In addition to Reilly, ESPN has added Mark Fainaru-Wada, an investigative reporter who, with reporter Lance Williams, led the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of the steroid scandal in sports.
Reporters T.J. Quinn of the New York Daily News and Howard Bryant of the Washington Post are now with ESPN. Football writer Jeffri Chadiha made the switch from Sports Illustrated.
In addition, several editors, including Kristin Huckshorn of The New York Times have moved to ESPN.
But while ESPN has added some heavy hitters, it’s not doing a complete makeover.
“ESPN isn’t turning into C-Span,” Thompson writes. “And fans can be assured that segments such as the ‘Budweiser Hot Seat’ on ‘SportsCenter’ have the support of advertisers.”
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment