Bleacher Report’s post-Turner-acquisition strategy of bringing in big names who can create solid written and video content (both for B/R itself and for the Turner networks) seems to be continuing, as it looks like they’ve just made another impressive hire on that front. Lars Anderson, who spent 20 years with Sports Illustrated before leaving earlier this year, announced on Twitter Thursday that he’ll be joining B/R as a senior writer as of Jan. 1:

Anderson’s best known for his SI work, which has often focused on NASCAR and college football, but has also spanned a variety of other sports. He’s written plenty of remarkable pieces, including a cover story on the 2011 tornado that struck Tucsaloosa, a look at Dale Earnhardt’s crash 10 years after, and an examination earlier this year of what it meant for Austin Dillon to take Earnhardt’s #3. Anderson has also written six books, including The Storm And The Tide (on that tornado and what the Alabama football team did to help rebuild), and he’s worked as a journalism instructor at the University of Alabama. He’s already been writing some pieces for B/R on a freelance basis, including a thoughtful look this week at Rolando McClain’s retirement and return to the NFL, but bringing him on as a more regular contributor seems like a great get. It’s something that could produce excellent results for readers, too; B/R seems content to provide some of their top writers with the time and resources to do quality longform pieces well (such as Anderson’s one on McClain), so there could be some good reads from him ahead.

Key hires are a big part of B/R’s overall credibility boost, and it’s worked out well for them so far. Former mainstream journalists like Mike Freeman, Howard Beck, Ethan Skolnick and Kevin Ding have produced great content for them and helped to reduce the site’s reputation as just a harbour of listicles and slideshows, and, as Matt noted earlier this year, it’s interesting that B/R isn’t being blasted by the internet as a whole as much these days. They’re also generating a lot more unique and original work, and that work is getting noticed; co-founder and current chief content and product officer Dave Finochio told me last year that “We want to be on the front.end of starting conversations more than we have been,” and it appears they’re doing that. There are still some complaints against them, notably those from former writers like Tom Schreier who feel they weren’t adequately compensated for their work or given enough chances for promotion, but the dumping over B/R’s content isn’t anywhere near what it once was. It’s a massive site, and like all massive sites, it’s going to produce some things that are questionable (at least to some readers), but it’s also producing some content that’s very tough to criticize. In fact, B/R’s hires (and what they’re empowering those hires to do) may be yet another sign that quality and/or longform sports journalism is far from dead.

It’s interesting to note that a lot of top writers are doing said journalism in rather different places these days, though. Five years ago, it would be hard to imagine people leaving SI or The New York Times for sites like Bleacher Report. Now, there are lots making the transition from big mainstream outlets to various websites. That’s not necessarily bad, and it doesn’t mean that journalism’s dead at the old mainstream sites either. It’s just perhaps a sign of how much things have spread out. We’ll see if websites pushing resources at big names and quality stories is sustainable over the long term, but B/R continuing along this path with hires like that of Anderson is a promising sign.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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