Bill Simmons’ The Ringer to Switch From Medium to Vox
The sports and pop culture site will split ad revenue with Vox
Sean Burch | May 30, 2017 @ 7:55 AM
Last Updated: May 30, 2017 @ 7:57 AM
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Bill Simmons’ The Ringer — a 1-year-old site focused on sports, tech, and pop culture — will be switching its host from Medium to Vox in the near future, according to a joint announcement on Tuesday.
The “strategic partnership” will allow Simmons to maintain ownership of the venture he launched last June, while Vox will sell advertisements for the site. Ad revenue will be split between Vox and The Ringer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“This partnership allows us to remain independent while leveraging two of the things that Vox Media is great at: sales and technology,” Simmons said in a statement. “We want to devote the next couple of years to creating quality content, innovating as much as we can, building our brand and growing The Ringer as a multimedia business.”
It’s an intriguing move on both fronts. Vox will be able to add The Ringer to its stable of sites, including SB Nation, The Verge, and, of course, its namesake news site.
The Ringer can move away from its uneven presentation on Medium, where it’s been hosted since going live last summer, and align itself with a company well-versed in monetizing content. Medium had left its partners smarting over its decision to slash its ad sales staff earlier this year.
Perhaps more importantly, The Ringer will benefit from a traffic increase directed from Vox’s handful of sites. Since leaving ESPN in 2015, where he had operated the now-shuttered site Grantland, Simmons has built a formidable writing and podcasting network whose web performance is still relatively modest.
The Ringer had about 8.5 million page views last month, according to Similar Web. For comparison, SB Nation had more than 20 million.
5 Reasons Why Bill Simmons' 'Any Given Wednesday' Tanked After Four Months (Photos)
Bill Simmons - the sports guy with the magic touch. He practically reinvented sportswriting for the web at ESPN.com. He founded Grantland, a legendary (and now defunct) website. His podcast was a killer! So why was his HBO talk show "Any Given Wednesday" canceled after just four months? Read on to find out.
1. No buzz
The premiere of "Any Given Wednesday" got people talking, not because of anything Simmons said, but because many viewers speculated that guest Ben Affleck was drunk when he went off on a tear about the New England Patriots and Deflategate. Unfortunately for Simmons, Affleck's spiel was pretty much the last time anyone discussed his show. "It never resonated with audiences," Simmons admitted in a statement.
2. The host
Simmons may be great online and on a podcast, but on TV? He's a bit ill-at-ease and stiff as a host. It didn't help that HBO decided to do the show essentially as a talk-radio broadcast, with a cheap set and virtually no music or graphics.
3. Low ratings
Well, duh. Bad numbers mean cancellation. But the ratings for "Wednesday" were especially atrocious. The premiere drew a respectable 260,000 total viewers. But by the Oct. 26 show with guest Larry Wilmore, the audience was down to 82,000 - an appalling 68% decline.
4. HBO's strategy shift
"Wednesday" was ordered up by the regime of former programming chief Michael Lombardo. But he was given the heave-ho earlier this year, and now new HBO programmer Casey Bloys (pictured) is eager to make his mark on the network. See ya, "Wednesday"!
5. "Wednesday" wasn't the point
Don't worry about Simmons. He has an overall deal with HBO, so he will be back in some other form on the network. And he still has podcasts and a new website, The Ringer. Maybe "Wednesday" was just a start. A false start.
Quick cancellation takes a bit of the gilt off former ESPN scribe’s golden touch
Bill Simmons - the sports guy with the magic touch. He practically reinvented sportswriting for the web at ESPN.com. He founded Grantland, a legendary (and now defunct) website. His podcast was a killer! So why was his HBO talk show "Any Given Wednesday" canceled after just four months? Read on to find out.