I Hate ESPN But Layoffs Are Part of Business

I know this is a day late, but I was too busy making sure the lights stay on here and I don’t have to lay anybody off like the WorldWide Leader.  Anyway everybody is piling on ESPN right now. Everybody is laughing at them. Saying they are dead. Saying they are a broken business. Saying it’s their programming decisions that caused this bloodbath. Saying they are too left wing or some shit. Listen I hate ESPN for the way they covered the Patriots during Deflatgate and I love dancing on graves more than I love anything in my life. But let’s slow down about the demise of ESPN. They are still an absolute monster. Sure their lead on the rest of the sports media may be shrinking but it’s still ESPN and everybody else. The facts of the matter is there is way more competition now. It’s only natural their viewership and subscriber base would begin to shrink. Technology changes. Radio dies. Newspaper dies. Traditional TV is facing major challenges. The internet has evened the playing field to a degree. Combine this with the fact ESPN is locked in with humongous league contracts and something had to give. That’s business. It sucks for everybody who got laid off, but if they weren’t indispensable ESPN would have kept them. The facts are ESPN’s numbers will not decline because of any of the layoffs. ESPN may be wavering but there is still nobody even close to challenging them for the crown. Bad decisions were made at ESPN, but they weren’t made today.  The layoffs were a result of bad business decisions made years ago that didn’t account for the changing media landscape.   It’s a new media world and ESPN isn’t going anywhere. They just need to adapt and change like everybody.