News: Washington Post, RSNs, WNBA CBA and more

The latest exit at The Washington Post is its CEO. Plus: two MLB teams consider creating their own multi-team RSNs; WNBA collective bargaining negotiations are reaching the pivot point; and more.

Washington Post CEO steps down

Three days after The Washington Post functionally shuttered its sports department as part of a massive wave of layoffs, its publisher and CEO Will Lewis announced Saturday that he will step down after a two-year tenure. The newspaper officially announced Saturday that Jeff D’Onofrio — the former CEO of Tumblr and CFO of the ad provider Raptive — will take over as acting CEO and publisher.

Lewis had been the subject of heavy criticism in recent days for skipping for the Wednesday conference call in which the firings were announced, but finding the time to attend Super Bowl week events on-site.

Matt Murray, the Post executive editor who announced the firings to staffers Wednesday, told Puck’s Dylan Byers on “The Grill Room” podcast Thursday that the Post was not “able to compete” in a changing journalism ecosystem in part because “we had this large cost base.” Murray: “A lot of people express love of our sports team and our sports department was — is — very talented; we had great writers … And it’s no comment on any of those folks and their talents, but we aren’t in that space, we aren’t as relevant as we might be. Not that we’re not great, but we weren’t even as a company in a position to be there.” Murray also told The New York Times that the Post had not been “seen digitally as a major sports destination.”

In the statement announcing D’Onofrio’s hire — and his first public statement since the cuts — Post owner Jeff Bezos said Saturday that the “data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

Braves, Angels, considering own multi-team RSNs

The MLB Braves and Angels are both weighing the launch of their own RSNs that would host teams from multiple sports, Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported Thursday. Any potential network would have to launch in time for the Major League Baseball season, which begins next month.

The seven other Major League Baseball teams who had been with Main Street Sports Group have either announced, or are expected to announce, that they will be shifting production and distribution of their games to the in-house MLB Media production arm.

Per Friend, the Angels could also end up moving to MLB Media, as they have requested more time from MLB to make a decision. Unlike the Braves, who would be creating an entirely new RSN, the Angels already co-own the FanDuel Sports Network West RSN and would have to buy out Main Street in order to acquire the channel in full. In that event, the team would recruit the NHL Kings — who also play on that RSN — with the promise of a rights fee, rather than co-ownership.

Similarly, the Braves would control their RSN and recruit other teams as clients rather than partners. That includes the NBA Hawks, with whom the Braves have already reportedly held talks.

Growing concern about delayed WNBA season, players’ strike

There is “growing concern” that the start of the WNBA season will have to be delayed if the league and players union are unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement by next week, Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports reported Saturday. The regular season is set to begin three months from Sunday, but the league needs to conduct two expansion drafts, free agency, a regular draft and training camps beforehand.

The union in December authorized its executive committee to call a strike “when necessary.” According to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal Saturday, there is a “sense” among sources that a “player picket line” could come as soon as next week at NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. There has never been a collective bargaining-related work stoppage in the history of the WNBA

By all accounts, talks have been at a stalemate. It took six weeks after the union’s most recent proposal in December for the league to respond with a counteroffer this past Friday. Per Alexa Phillipou of ESPN, the league continues to offer the players a percentage of net revenue — or revenue after expenses — while the players are seeking a cut of gross revenue.

The difference is significant, as the players estimate that the owners’ proposed 70% cut of net revenue would equal less than 15% of the gross, Friend reported Saturday. That is less than half of the 30% of gross revenue the players are seeking.

Plus: NDSU, F1 Super Bowl ad, Jurgensen, Nielsen-Tubi

North Dakota State, a perennial contender in FCS football, is in “serious” talks to join the Mountain West, Ross Dellinger of Yahoo Sports was first to report Friday. The talks, which have been going on for a year, would increase the Mountain West membership to ten football schools. The conference just this week announced new multi-year media rights deals with CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Nexstar-owned CW and Kiswe.
The new Cadillac Formula 1 team will run a Super Bowl ad that includes a “prominent” promotion of Apple TV’s new F1 package, according to Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter. While the ad will not be specifically promoting the Apple TV coverage, it will include a call-to-action at the end that reads “watch on Apple TV.” Apple is entering the first year of its new contract to become the exclusive U.S. home of F1 racing.
Sonny Jurgensen, the Pro Football Hall of Famer who spent more than four decades in the broadcast booth — first nationally with CBS and then for 38-straight years on local radio in Washington D.C. — died Friday at age 91. Jurgensen retired from broadcasting in 2019.
Nielsen has reached a multi-year expansion of its existing partnership with Fox-owned Tubi, it was announced Thursday. The new agreement will grant the free, ad-supported streamer greater access to Nielsen’s various measurement products, presumably making it easier for the service to sell advertising.