ESPN has hired Roxanna Scott as its new top editor to oversee newsgathering across TV and digital, according to Ryan Glasspiegel and Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Scott will serve as SVP, editor-in-chief — a newly created role that consolidates editorial leadership for the first time in years. She’ll handle investigations and enterprise work while reporting to Dave Roberts from Bristol.
Scott comes from USA Today, where she spent nearly 20 years and finished as executive editor and VP of sports. She joined The Athletic earlier this year as managing editor of the daily desk before ESPN came calling, according to FOS.
EXCLUSIVE: ESPN has hired Roxanna Scott as its new editor-in-chief, sources told FOS.
The USA Today veteran will take on a newly-created position in which she will be the top editor at ESPN across all of TV and digital newsgathering.
By @sportsrapport and @MMcCarthyREV ⬇️
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 15, 2025
The position didn’t exist until ESPN’s editorial department lost multiple leaders this year. Executive editor Cristina Daglas was placed on administrative leave in January following HR complaints, FOS previously reported. Daglas’s attorney sent ESPN a cease-and-desist letter in March alleging “unlawful harassment, retaliation, and investigation,” calling the proceedings “wholly meritless and unsubstantiated.” ESPN fired Daglas in April. She landed at Monumental Basketball in October as head of research and identity.
Senior deputy editor Elizabeth Baugh was also placed on leave during the Daglas investigation. Outkick reported ESPN considered Baugh’s friendship with Daglas an impediment to the investigation. Baugh left for Ring Magazine in April. Additionally, Heather Burns, senior deputy editor for NFL coverage, also departed the company for a role with USA Today.
FOS notes the structure mirrors what ESPN ran under Vince Doria, the former Boston Globe sports editor who oversaw the news desk until retiring in 2015. ESPN distributed those responsibilities after Doria left rather than replacing him with a single leader.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.