Mike Soltys calls ESPN layoffs ‘very disappointing,’ but is moving on from ‘the sadness’
"Showing this amount of people the door, not for performance reasons, is very disappointing."
"Showing this amount of people the door, not for performance reasons, is very disappointing."
"At least one of the partners we were talking to said, 'We’re ready to sign today, but the optics of us announcing that we’re laying off X number of people and we signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the Pac-12 are just not the best, so we’re going to have to wait six weeks.'"
"Mickey, he's a passive-aggressive M-Fer."
"My contract is up soon and I expect that I'll be leaving at the end of it."
This looks to be the first of three waves of ESPN layoffs, with another one also focusing not on on-air talent by the summer, followed by cutbacks to on-air talent.
"I do think they're going to go to some other people who make big numbers and say 'You can stay, but we're going to cut you in half.' People are going to have decisions to make on that."
"Hell, for all I know, I might be one of them. Now I doubt that. But it’s possible. No one knows."
Drehs covered a wide variety of sports stories for ESPN, from the Olympics to inspirational high school stories to NFL, NBA and MLB stories.
"How do you guys not understand what this audience loves about the show?"
Smith was a news editor for ESPN, part a nearly 40-year career covering baseball.
According to the report, the total number of jobs cut will end up around 500.
There look to be more layoffs ahead at ESPN, but it's not clear if those will come in a matter of weeks or months.
Werder will cover the Cowboys (of course), but also expand into other sports as well.