ESPN is suspending the publication of Grantland, a vanity site started by Bill Simmons that featured pop culture writing alongside offbeat sports pieces, effective immediately, the company announced in a statement Friday.
“After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise,” the statement said.
Simmons left the company in May, amid reports of increasing friction between him and ESPN management.
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An ESPN spokesman followed up on Twitter, saying all writers’ contracts would be honored, with their work published on other ESPN platforms.
Now-former Grantland staffers took to Twitter to react to the announcement. Some indicated that they were not made aware of the announcement before it was made:
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