In the latest entry for ESPN as part of the Poynter Review Project, Poynter Institute Ethics Group Leader Kelly McBride wrote Grantland.com writers and editors "will have to sharpen their focus and develop some self-discipline if they want to keep the audience engaged in long(ish)-form literary journalism." At its "best, Grantland is clever and funny, for smart people who want to be intellectually challenged and entertained at the same time." At its "worst, it is a bunch of hyperbole and aimless columns that lack a clear focus." Nearly two weeks since the site's launch, the "offerings are inconsistent at this point, and there's room for improvement -- specifically in how the editors and writers view the purpose of their work." If Grantland "has hard targets for audience, ESPN bosses aren't voicing them out loud." Instead, ESPN execs "keep talking about Grantland as the slow food movement of sports journalism, a place that will evolve into a fully mature site." While the writing is "funnier and more accessible than that in The New Yorker, it still takes a concerted effort to finish a piece." McBride: "When people are looking to kill time, they don't want to work at it. Reading 3,000 words takes work. A certain portion of the audience will do it, but even those people have to be motivated to put in that effort." Also, there is a "line somewhere between spotlighting the voice of your storyteller and overindulging the writer's ego," and "hopefully, Grantland will eventually land on the right side." Regardless, "not everyone has to like Grantland." ESPN "gets a bazillion visitors a day," and Grantland "needs only a fraction of those." "If it is "really successful, a substantial portion of Grantland's audience could be new to ESPN." McBride: "If you love ESPN, especially the brainy stuff such as the '30 for 30' documentaries and ESPN The Magazine's fiction issue, you'll probably find something to love about Grantland. And if ESPN's excesses annoy you, then you've probably already found something about Grantland to hate" (ESPN.com, 6/17).
