ESPN.com Closes "Page 2" Section, Launches New Features In New Section

ESPN.com's Page 2 is "closing its doors after nearly a dozen years of service" and the website will offer "new features in a new section" beginning today, according to Kevin Jackson of ESPN.com (4/13). DEADSPIN.com's Jack Dickey noted the new name of the section will be ESPN Playbook. In the pre-sports-blog era, Page 2 "was funny and fresh and cool and a welcome upgrade to the jokes the local sports columnist would run alongside his Sunday column." Then Bill Simmons "became bigger than Page 2, and ESPN.com grew still," with the addition of Rick Reilly and “an army of sportswriters to work independent of the broadcast presence." Dickey added, "The Page 2 conceit no longer made sense, not because its style was outdated but because so much of ESPN's internet presence had adopted its style." Dickey: "What is Grantland, really, but a resuscitation of Page 2 with one contributor, rather than several, as its star?" (DEADSPIN.com, 4/13).