End of the line (in press, anyway) for ESPN: The Magazine

The magazine aimed to attack Sports Illustrated directly by appealing to a younger and more connected clientele. "It's a cross-stone with Sports Illustrated," said Skipper in ESPN's oral history: "These guys have all the fun of having fun."

"All we wanted to do was clear demarcation between them and their old, and their last generation, and that's what happened yesterday," he added.

Skipper estimated on a recent episode of Bill Simmons' podcast at The Ringer that by the mid-2000s, the magazine had made a profit of $ 30 to $ 40 million a year, although this probably includes other ESPN products that were delivered with him. His success helped propel Skipper into the ESPN hierarchy as president of the company.

But not only the world of print publishing has changed dramatically since then, but ESPN also.

Skipper, who has often spoken about the importance of storytelling and rigorous journalism, is no longer at ESPN. He resigned in 2017 after what he described as an extortion attempt related to a cocaine purchase.

ESPN has experienced several layoffs in recent years. The company is still very profitable, but its growth has stopped, as consumers continue to abandon pay-TV. In 2011, about 100 million Americans subscribed to a television package with ESPN. That number is less than $ 85 million, a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

While the company has reoriented toward a future in digital video, it has abandoned some of its ambitious plans. Grantland, a sports and popular culture site built like Simmons, was closed in 2015. FiveThirtyEight, a data and sports site with extensive data, created by Nate Silver, was transferred to ABC News, a ESPN's brother, last year. Subscriptions to ESPN Insider, a section of ESPN's once-fantastic sports website, were merged in August with ESPN +, ESPN's new subscription digital video service.

Under the new president, Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN has focused its efforts on returning to the good graces of the N.F.L. and a rapid growth of ESPN + by filling it with thousands of sports competitions.