ESPN Public Editor Jim Brady in his latest filing addressed the net's recent layoffs, which "dealt a painful blow to ESPN’s newsgathering capabilities." While ESPN "still has plenty of talent to fall back on, no news organization gets better by losing 100 journalists." The lack of layoffs related to ESPN’s debate shows "would seem to confirm their perceived value to the network, despite some carping from critics about the quality of said shows." At a time in which "having a healthy business is important for ESPN, it’s hard to argue that the network should cut back on debate shows, which are relatively low cost and high margin." Ratings and the revenue that emanates from ESPN's debate shows "help pay for the higher-quality investigative and enterprise journalism the network produces." Suggesting ESPN should "scale back debate shows is essentially asking it to create more financial problems for itself." Brady wrote it is "hard to predict what long-term journalistic impact these layoffs will have, outside of an obvious reduction of daily reporting firepower in some areas." What happens in the "coming months ... will say a lot." If the net "continues to produce the strong long-form and investigative journalism it’s consistently produced for years ... then it’ll be hard to argue that its commitment to journalism has waned." Brady: "In talking to dozens of senior execs at the company over the past 18 months, I do believe that commitment to journalism is real." However, one commitment was "lacking from ESPN during these layoffs: a willingness to cover its own bad news." ESPN.com "published no news story about its own cuts" though several ESPN personalities "made on-air statements supporting their departed colleagues" and ESPN’s Front Row site posted a release. Brady: "Neither did the job of honestly and openly communicating with the public" (ESPN.com, 6/8).
