The most interesting thing about this story is the monetization of Twitter accounts. Figuring out how to turn followers into dollars is the future, I suppose.
At first I was wondering how she was convincing these people to give up their accounts, but I think I've got it somewhat figured out:
1) She uses her pretty face and Nelish's knowledge of sports betting to get a gig writing for Covers. He calls most of the shots.
2) She eventually gets hired at ESPN by Lynn Hoppes, who thinks that he can bring a lot of traffic to Page 2 by hiring a pretty girl. I've met the dude before - he's a total asshole.
3) Nelish decides it would be brilliant to use the Page 2 gig as leverage to convince people to hand over their lucrative social media ventures by promising them a cut of the profits once everything is consolidated into some fantasy media empire. They never had much money, but they did have the ESPN connection, and they used it effectively to swindle people out of their Facebook/Twitter accounts.
4) Deadspin catches wind of it, reports it, and ESPN shitcans Phillips. According to the Oregon State school newspaper she's currently working at an AT&T store in Corvallis.