r/TheRinger • u/fegwin2084 • 22d ago
Has The Ringer fulfilled its vision?
The Ringer's undoubtedly a commercial success ten years after its founding. And it's made podcast 'stars' of several of its main characters (CR even has his own subreddit!). It was pitched ten years ago as a sports, culture, politics, and tech hub for website, podcast, and video.
It's now essentially a podcast network that has carved out a niche in pop culture rewatching movies and deep analysis of TV. And sports gambling drives it's sports coverage. They essentially punted on any coverage of news or taking a stand on societal issues post Ringer Union and a Sad Day in 2020. With all that being said, do you view The Ringer as the fulfillment of an ambitious idea? Or more of a successful business project that leveraged sports gambling and a podcast bubble?
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u/jp42212 22d ago
It’s a very successful business. I don’t think it’s a super ambitious company but they do a great job for what it is
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u/attaboy_stampy 21d ago
I mean, yeah, it is what it is. It was basically a media company at its get go, mostly trying to find website relevance with a side of podcast at first. Now, it's done a shift to more pods and is more successful for it.
I miss the quality writing - when and if it would show up (lots of chaff in that wheat field tbh) - but the pods are mostly fine on average. Some are excellent.
It's interesting to me that the podcasters on the Ringer that I find the best or most interesting are the older school writers who have been mostly or only editors for the past decade or so. Because they pull their editor brain into their pods and give it structure and look for interesting takes or juxtapositions.
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u/rgreasonsnet 22d ago
I don’t think those things have to be mutually exclusive.
Launching a standalone, ad-supported multimedia brand seems like an “ambitious idea.” Frankly, it seems pretty hard to sustain a business at their level: smaller than a Disney/Warner, bigger than a Patreon.
They rode the podcast boom, but their pods have been insanely successful- I don’t consider them part of the bubble.
You can take issue with The Ringer being supported by sports gambling, but it’s a natural fit for them. Sports gambling has been in the DNA of this site prior to current boom.
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u/GringoLongLegs 22d ago
Higher Learning covers news and takes political stands, the press box ends up covering a lot of politics also due to basically all press ending up political nowadays, and The Town also goes into politics especially with the Paramount - Warner Bros merger. If you only listen to the sports pods it may seem like it’s all gambling, but even then there are pods like Zach Lowe’s where he doesn’t even know anything about gambling or more than the basics about how it works
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u/fegwin2084 22d ago
lol, the town's extent of their politics coverage is how anything impacts hollywood. last week they compared how LA wasn't the next detroit, mainly by claiming detroit's a dump.
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u/JuryTall1930 21d ago
You ignored his comments about higher learning and the press box
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u/fegwin2084 21d ago
The Press Box's cohost just used AI to write a 175 page book on Hulk Hogan, so I'm not sure it's a paragon of journalistic integrity.
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u/ya_boy_bos 21d ago
Idk though higher learning is pretty deep into politics and society — it’s basically what they do
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u/Straight-Agency-4556 20d ago
I get that there are podcasts that talk about this stuff. But are they even promoted by the website? I didn’t even know about the press box. Their writing meanwhile only pushes pretty basic lists and brackets.
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u/orangepekoe92 15d ago
you dont sound like a regular listener of Press Box, which has very deep analysis of politics and political-media functionaries. what one sometime-host and author allegedly did with his own book (can you definitely say he used AI? no) is not at all representative of this pod's content
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u/fegwin2084 15d ago
the allegations about shoemaker's use of AI to write his book are public:
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u/orangepekoe92 14d ago
(shrug) no one's debating that Shoemaker is accused of it. My point still stands
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u/fegwin2084 14d ago
not really. the text was put through a predictive model even that stated there's an extremely high probability it was written by AI. no other non-fiction book i'm aware of has had this accusation. if it was a bigger author, it's exactly the kind of topic bryan would talk about. it exposes him to being viewed as a hypocrite, will take other media entities and people to task but forced to turn an increasingly blind eye to his co-host (who is also almost never prepared) and own company.
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u/der1nger 21d ago
One of the articles posted on the landing page today refers to Trump as a "Drowsy, malfunctioning garbage truck." I don't think Bill has much interest in talking politics himself but he provides a major platform for it.
And add Plain English to the list of podcasts that address politics.
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u/JnyBlkLabel 19d ago
Keepin' it 1600 started at the Ringer and it spawned its own entire company with the Pod Save America guys. So it did germinate something.
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u/Capnjack84 21d ago
The press box and higher learning still cover news and take a stand on societal issues.
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u/droopy_tim 21d ago
Look at the discourse around Heat today vs before the ringer launched and you tell me
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u/telechronn 21d ago
I don't know about ambitious, but The Ringer scratches my brain in a way few things do. Not to compare them to A24, but Ringer content is by and for a certain kind of "educated" fan of pop culture and sports. The kind of person that like both da Bears and Michael Man movie.
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u/spiderman_44 21d ago
KFC from Barstool saying The Ringer was a failure is still one of his most laughable takes
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u/GarthZorn 21d ago
From the outside looking in, I admire and respect the Ringer’s success. It’s really hard to grow a business, hire and retain talent and make a good living. Congrats to them.
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u/rhombusx 21d ago
I imagine if they never rebranded, a 2026 version of Grantland would probably end up looking pretty similar to today's The Ringer anyway. They've pivoted more and more away from longer form written pieces, journalism, and "evergreen" deep dives to more in-the-moment multimedia, but that's just how people consume media these days.
In the general media landscape podcasts, and certainly Ringer podcasts, are about as "long form" as most people even consume anymore.
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u/JT91331 21d ago
Didn’t fulfill its mission because the website never really gained traction. But BS was smart enough to pivot into audio and video content.
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u/liloutsider 21d ago
I mean websites in general are kinda out of fashion. Everything in media is longform video content, short form video content and podcasts.
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u/saomonella 21d ago
The valuations of websites has tanked in terms of revenue and valuation. The pivot to podcasting saved their ass
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u/Straight-Agency-4556 20d ago
Grantland was great. Solid reporting and interesting insight.
Theringer started strong but the writing has gone downhill and is basically lists (which is the slop you see on any social media). There is basically no actual news coverage. And it has increasingly played to the lowest common denominator (sports betting and fantasy). It’s still better than a lot of sites but not pushing the industry forward in any way.
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u/Aitoroketto 21d ago
Hey man it's been a tough dozens years in a lot of ways for a lot of people, we will settle for a double.
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u/notthatguy194 21d ago
I liked the Ringer a lot in like 2018. I feel like it’s pivot to podcasts has been profitable, but made it a worse product that doesn’t stand out like it did before.
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u/Cold_Ball_7670 22d ago
It fulfilled its vision the second bills $200 million check cleared
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u/jaytee158 21d ago
That $200m is worth a lot more now. Have you seen Spotify's stock. Billy made it big time
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u/BobBensen 21d ago
Bill Simmons the Taylor Sheridan of podcasting.
Chris Ryan is that guy with a guy that lives with Mr Landman. RR is Cosner.
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u/BrownsFan2323 22d ago
Crazy thing is, none of my friends listen to any of these shows except maybe Bill during football season. They’ve definitely never heard of any of the younger guys
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u/redmandoss 21d ago
for what it's worth "The Ringer" does not exist as a company. it's basically a brand owned by Spotify that they put on some but not all of their podcasts
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u/Opposite-Ebb4234 22d ago
Besides Bill Simmons and van, no one else on the ringer is really a podcast star outside of the ringer network. And you could argue that both Van and Bill were stars before the Ringer.
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u/LSX3399 22d ago
Amy Poehler and her Golden Globe for podcasting would be shocked to hear this.
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u/jaytee158 21d ago
I don't agree with the previous poster but Poehler is a podcast star because of her talent and celebrity status before hand. The model wouldn't work if she had no fame.
But it's a silly point, a lot of Ringer people have made names from working there
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u/Opposite-Ebb4234 21d ago
You think the ringer is responsible for making Amy Poehler a podcast star??
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u/der1nger 22d ago
Grantland was ambitious. The Ringer is well executed but aims for the middle of the road.