While sites like Fox Sports, MTV, Vocativ, Vice and others do their respective pivots to video, there’s one company that is hiring writers and that is The Athletic. It’s also launching national sites devoted to college football, The All-American and college basketball, The Fieldhouse. Led by former SI college basketball maven Seth Davis, the site has hired two writers, both of whom made announcements on Twitter:
The good: A new gig.
The GREAT: I'm a senior writer for The Fieldhouse, @SethDavisHoops' new college hoops site. https://t.co/jjpjMs98QR
— Brian Hamilton (@_Brian_Hamilton) July 28, 2017
Brian Hamilton was a colleague of Davis’ at SI and wrote at the Chicago Tribune before that. Hamilton says Davis isn’t done bringing writers to The Fieldhouse:
And trust me on this: Seth isn't done yet building an all-world staff. @TheAthleticCBB is just getting started.
— Brian Hamilton (@_Brian_Hamilton) July 28, 2017
And former Sporting News and Vice NBA Draft and college basketball writer Sam Vecenie announced he was joining The Fieldhouse:
I’m pleased to announce I’m joining friend of the program @SethDavisHoops’ new college basketball start-up, The Fieldhouse, w/ The Athletic.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) July 28, 2017
He added that while he’ll again be covering the Draft as well as college basketball:
Basically, I’m going to be doing all the same stuff you know and hopefully enjoy. NBA Draft coverage will obviously be a big factor…
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) July 28, 2017
But I’m also going to do a ton of CBB coverage, too, with some features, analysis, and general bloggy stuff as we see fit.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) July 28, 2017
The latest
- While Wayne Gretzky has a “limited number of on-air appearances,” he’s still making an impact on his NHL on TNT coworkers
- Maggie Gray taking over CBS Sports Radio drive-time slot, with Andrew Perloff from The Dan Patrick Show
- Toronto Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia to be portrayed by Kal Penn in sports biopic
- Famed Canadian broadcaster Brian Williams is retiring following a 50-year career, TSN will honour him ahead of Grey Cup
These are solid moves for The Athletic and The Fieldhouse. There are still writers who were laid off from other sites still looking for work so we’ll see if some are picked up and get back on the horse to cover the sports they know and love.
As outlined by our Andrew Bucholtz, The Athletic has brought in writers from all over the country including SI and Fox college football writer Stewart Mandel who will lead The All-American. The Athletic is also launching local verticals to provide readers with sports coverage. It’s the total opposite of what other sites have done in dropping written stories replacing them with videos.
Can it work? Time will tell, but this is going to be watched closely to see if this becomes a model or if it will be another example of a site that gave a noble effort, but fell by the wayside. There are writers who are rooting very hard for The Athletic’s success and they hope that it lead to the launch of other sites down the line.
