Amplifi Media's Steve Goldstein Writes Grantland Post-Mortem

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AMPLIFI MEDIA's STEVE GOLDSTEIN weighs in on ESPN's shuttering of GRANTLAND in his latest blog post at the AMPLIFI website, asking whether the departure of the sports and pop culture website's founder BILL SIMMONS earlier this year meant that SIMMONS, the talent, was proven to be more important to the site than the GRANTLAND brand.

"The world has always run on talent," GOLDSTEIN writes. "They are the ones who move the needle.  Big morning shows, great actors, sports legends and visionary executives are few and far between... ESPN thought GRANTLAND was a brand that superseded SIMMONS.  But it was SIMMONS.  The audience knew it. And now a few months after a nasty divorce, it is gone.  But SIMMONS is not gone.  He lives with a successful new podcast and a relationship with HBO.

"The formula repeats over and over.  Talent drives ratings.  Sales dollars chase rating points."

GOLDSTEIN notes how 1% of podcasts drive 95% of downloads, proving to him (while he apologizes for the cliché) that content is king, and talent drives content.

Read the whole thing here.

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