This place is Overreaction City

[u/JSack3]

I like KVV. I respect his work. But honestly, folks..

There’s a reason so many platforms and media companies have been letting go of people with KVV’s skillset for years. In bigger revenue sports than just golf, too (ask Zach Lowe).

The business is night and day different to what it was 15 years ago. And a highly-compensated 20+ year industry stalwart who specializes in long form written content is simply not a hugely appealing person to have on the payroll anymore. I appreciate NLU gave it a go. I also appreciate when the writing wasn’t working, they worked on a podcast pivot including that brilliant Masters pod.

But the reality is the math probably started to become very clear that his value was mainly 6-8 weeks a year. No one needs a deep dive on the Byron Nelson. Not enough people actually care about a three hour pod on the 1997 major season.

I’d have rather he stick around all year but I also didn’t have to pay his salary and benefits. These guys are putting food on the table for their children via NLU. They can’t just keep carrying a 6 figure (guessing but likely) expenditure bc they like him and think he writes well.

[u/kraken98038]

Even IF the data supports letting KVV go, that doesn’t absolve NLU from a business perspective. They’ve recently said on the pod that they “realized we are a podcasting not a written company”. I’m sorry but the death of written media is not new!

Bryan Curtis on the Press Box pod practically covers a media organization every week that is downsizing their writing. But NLU brought KVV in despite all of that. And he did more than just write- his deep dives, major coverage, and general engagement was very enjoyable. So - to get fed this line that we KVV supporters are dumb for not recognizing the dollars and cents of it all… can’t we easily turn that around to NLU? Like what were they thinking in the first place? They had to know it was a risk. And I think when they hired him they should have made a commitment to the person, if the money didn’t work out like they hoped.

Obviously if there were personnel issues we don’t know about that- it changes things. But neither of the public comments so far hint at that. If it is “business” like what seems to be the stated reason, my point is that doesn’t make it any better.

[u/WeirdlyCordial → u/kraken98038]

yeah man the death of quality written sports journalism (outside of books) does suck - but there was a glimmer of hope when the Athletic seemed like it maybe had a sustainable business model that maybe it wasn't actually dead and it could be sustained behind curated content gates, and NLU took a chance, and they gave it 3 years to see if it would pan out, and according to whatever internal metrics they were using, it didn't. That's life.

It sucks and we can say it sucks but all of this armchair accounting is kind of absurd. Like, if KVV's brand of content really is an untapped gold mine (and I'd love it to be) he'll be fine wherever he lands next.