ESPN has announced that they will be suspending work on their Grantland website following the departure of the site’s founder Bill Simmons last May. The site was started in 2011 by Simmons and ESPN focused on sports and pop culture.
All of the site’s writers will have their contracts honored by ESPN.
Work continues on other ESPN spinoff sites such as The Undefeated, ESPN’s site on race and sports, as well as Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight which covers data driven journalism.
ESPN released the following statement:
Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland. After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.
Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun. We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent. Thanks to all the other writers, editors and staff who worked very hard to create content with an identifiable sensibility and consistent intelligence and quality. We also extend our thanks to Chris Connelly who stepped in to help us maintain the site these past five months as he returns to his prior role.
Despite this change, the legacy of smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms.