Is There an Unpredictable Paradox in Sports Media?

For more than two decades, the career path for individuals aspiring to make it in the sports media field has been straightforward. They would organize a college radio show, find a production job in the small market, then start climbing the ladder until they could work for a sports network like ESPN. Undoubtedly, the traditional way to make it in sports media is undergoing rapid changes now. In June 2023, ESPN had to lay off around twenty famous sports commentators, including Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, Suzy Kolber, Todd McShay, and Steve Young. CNN and the Washington Post pointed out that it was the biggest talent cut in ESPN’s history. However, The Wall Street Journal reported that the first wave of layoffs took place weeks earlier. In September 2024, The Athletic reported that even Zach Lowe, one of the well-known NBA reporters of his generation, had to leave.

The regional sports network industry has been completely shattered in the wake of these changes. In March 2023, the Diamond Sports Group—a company that owned broadcasting rights for more than a dozen MLB and NBA teams under the Bally Sports name—declared bankruptcy after failing to make its $140 million interest payment. The key argument of this article is focused on providing insight into that scenario: when it comes to winning over the unpredictable reality of sports media, it is no longer viable for managers, analysts, and journalists to rely on stable network structure. The only survivors are those who managed to develop their own media platforms and personal brands before the collapse.

The Shift from Network Credibility to Personal Equity

Jeff Bennett, who worked for ESPN for over 30 years until he was removed from his position because of downsizing, has been observing the turn of events within the recruiting system. According to him, “It’s a matter of finding a venue where you can display your work, get feedback, and do your visualizations. The more practice, the better.” These days, it is not a candidate who is looking for an audience to make their first impression—it is time to search for a candidate whose work has already been published on Substack, personal blogs, and other platforms.

The expert is inclined to be more concrete about the operation of the recruitment process. “Most of the jobs we filled had already been filled by the people we already know. A person rarely finds themselves in front of us if we haven’t heard of them before,” said Bennett. Hence, the idea of the person’s social circle changing from a tool of searching for them to a destination for them is formed.

The infrastructure supporting that inversion is fully established now. Substack has worked hard to corner the sports journalism segment of the growth space, and in 2023, Front Office Sports’ title “the year of layoffs” was apt, as independent newsletter writers, YouTubers, and podcasters took a huge number of former staffers from established media outlets. The path of a resume was straightforward for a long time but turned into a digital footprint. The modern sports journalist operates less as a network employee and more like an independent creator who uses the network to distribute their content.

The paradox for beginners in this field is that even though there is a traditional way to enter the industry, it does not work in isolation from the presence of the public portfolio.

The “Crutch” vs. the Unique Brand Voice

In the latter portion of Bennett’s evaluation, he approaches the element that is responsible for getting oneself hired once their work gains traction. He states that this isn’t merely a matter of numerical ability. When he points to the personalities who use numbers as a crutch, he believes that their worth is not derived merely from their ability to read numbers off their computers.

The author’s argument here is contrary to many years of commonly held assumptions in the industry, which claimed that analytics may cover narrative-driven communication. What Bennett says is far more nuanced. The job of analytics is to help develop the commentator’s voice, not to replace it. According to Bennett, “Analytics is about empowering people to make better decisions” instead of replacing scouts and retired players. Therefore, anyone who uses advanced metrics through a computer with no other skills has not developed a business. Indeed, they have only created a human dashboard, which is unworthy of delivering any significant message.

This has become clear to the fortunate indie operators of the last ten years. Bill Simmons’s move from an ESPN column to founding The Ringer was due to his solid voice and stubborn position, but not due to his winning statistics. Pat McAfee, as The Guardian pointed out, skyrocketed to fame with his post-NFL show thanks to his character and the audience he was able to attract before using analytics as a tool for adding yet another layer to his distinct editorial position. USA Today described his rise in a way that would symbolize the business of sports creators, meaning he built such a personal brand that ESPN eventually decided to buy broadcasting rights.

To summarize, the moat is found in interpretation. Data is open, and the voice is not. What sports journalists do with the numbers is their brand.

Navigating Corporate Instability and Industry Contraction

The importance of a personal brand in the modern business environment is increasing, not declining. The decline of Diamond Sports is a sign that there are problems in the entire media industry. For example, The Athletic and The New York Times have explained how the entire RSN model, which relies on cable subscription payments to a small group of large broadcasters, has suffered from the changes in the media landscape, despite the steady growth in the costs of the rights. It is important to note that Forbes writes that the leagues will have to manage their own distribution in the future. ESPN has explained that fans have difficulties understanding the situation. Meanwhile, CNBC has shown that RSNs continue to struggle even though ratings of sports events break records of the previous years.

The Wall Street Journal informs that after the bankruptcy, Diamond managed to survive and rebrand itself as FanDuel Sports Network, but with a greatly reduced staff and number of sports channels.

For working professionals, this environment indicates specific things: the “free agency reality,” which Bennett mentions. In the 90s, ESPN’s production process was huge, with everyone working for just one program. Nowadays, its production happens at local stations where most of the job is done by outside parties. People who adapted to those changes were the ones having their own distribution, such as a podcast feed, email list, YouTube channel, or Substack account. This way, if the network shrinks down, they already have their audience, and if it grows, they have a good bargaining position.

Those professionals who don’t have their own channels were often shocked to find out, sometimes only a few weeks in advance, that the network no longer covers them.

A Strategic Blueprint: How Next-Gen Sportscasters Build a Moat

Bennett’s evaluations and the independent success stories over the last ten years reveal three important principles.

1. Publicity matters: Post written, audio, and visual content consistently, regardless of the quality and quantity of available data. Bennett is right about the candidate being from the popular page because it is the only mechanism for discovering candidates. There exist many sports newsletters, from data-oriented NBA analysis to specific college football coverage, precisely because the audience and the employers moved to that channel.

2. Multiple skills are needed. Blend domain expertise, such as story development in sports and access, with technical skills, such as data processing, filming, and audio work. Neither is sufficient by itself. As Bennett says, analytics is used “to help” you but not to substitute for you.

3. Good relations: “Be flexible in terms of taking new opportunities and using your network,” said Bennett. “Be a good teammate.” This is because the job market in sports media is indeed small and reputation matters. The Bill Simmons-Pat McAfee transition reflects not only a unique voice but also a set of relationships that helped them travel through platforms.

Owning Your Narrative

The unpredictable paradox of sports media is that the appetite for sports stories in the marketplace has never been more formidable, and the entities that have historically provided this kind of content have never been weaker. Networks still provide audiences and rights, but audiences without power are a very delicate situation. Service brands lend strength to an audience, allowing it to endure layoffs, bankruptcies, and mass closures of broadcasting companies before and after something happens.

The first professionals to grasp this are the Newtons, Clarks, McAfees, Simmonss, and the writers from Substack who kept working with their audience despite being part of institutions. Those who believed once that the network was their career have learned that networks never were about careers. In the era ruled by algorithms and ever-shifting broadcasting rights, the best friends of the professionals are independent platforms, which attract the audience regardless of which logo pays them that week.