Hacker News Reader

Comment by mlucero | Hacker News Reader

Interesting because I'm familiar with the site but why is this here?

Besides Grantland stories popping up frequently on HN, ESPN is an interesting and significant company...not just because of its pure size and near monopoly over sports entertainment, but because of its willingness to invest money in non-profitable media ventures, like Grantland...Grantland was a great example of what happens when you hire the best writers and give them room to work.

I'm not sure I see the hacker news connection myself. It's a news site about sports. They weren't really doing anything particularly innovative besides the popular editor and good writers.

"They weren't really doing anything particularly innovative"

Well, better get back to posting about the next "unicorn" with no business plan.

A big part of it is that Grantland was seldom accused of writing "clickbait" or churning out low-quality content. They had talented writers producing good longform material. If ESPN couldn't make that profitable, it's a blow to the argument (often seen on HN) that people are willing to pay for quality journalism.

See a piece like this:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/silicon-valley-hal...

Not about sports, informative, and thoughtful.

I think the story of passionate people pouring their hearts into their work for several years, believing they were creating something great, only to see in crumble in a few short months, would resonate with this crowd.

I really don't understand the unending complaints about why stories are submitted to HN. The title is 5 words:

   ESPN suspends publication of Grantland

You couldn't ask for a more succinct title. Just how hard is it to skip that story if you're not interested? I skip the majority of stories on HN. It's not hard to do.

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