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The Ringer |OT| Formerly Known as Binge Mode

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scoobs

scoobs

Member
I read an article basically saying how badly the website was doing and it makes me sad because I love Simmons and want to support him, but I rarely find myself going there and when I do its to read an NBA column he wrote. I've browsed around and the other topics they're covering often make me think "who cares enough to read this?"

I wish Bill the best, but getting people to read anything at all in 2016 is basically impossible so I'm not sure if they'll ever find real success. Hopefully with that dreadful HBO show gone, the quality of BS podcasts and The Ringer in general will go way up. I've tried other Ringer podcasts but I haven't enjoyed any of them so I guess I'm just in it for the BS pod at this point.
 
Q

Quixzlizx

Member
scoobs said:
I read an article basically saying how badly the website was doing and it makes me sad because I love Simmons and want to support him, but I rarely find myself going there and when I do its to read an NBA column he wrote. I've browsed around and the other topics they're covering often make me think "who cares enough to read this?"

I wish Bill the best, but getting people to read anything at all in 2016 is basically impossible so I'm not sure if they'll ever find real success. Hopefully with that dreadful HBO show gone, the quality of BS podcasts and The Ringer in general will go way up. I've tried other Ringer podcasts but I haven't enjoyed any of them so I guess I'm just in it for the BS pod at this point.
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It hurts that he doesn't have Zach Lowe. I'd visit Grantland every day just to see if he had written anything.
 
R

ryseing

Member
Article quality has gotten substantially better as of late. It didn't hurt that they hired Rodger Sherman, who was one of the best SBNation guys.

I check it every morning and usually find two or three things to read.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
I like the Ringer's topic coverage in general, but 90% of what I've read has this really offputting format similar to:

Paragraph 1: Setup
Paragraph 2-3: Digging deeper
Final line: END

It's like there is this painfully low wordcount total to hit and then they just pull the cord rather than pulling the article together into a conclusion or debate. It does look like it's getting better in that regard, I hope.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
Nardonicus said:
It feels like a lighter version of Grantland now, instead of the buzzfeed ripoff that it was when it launched.
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They went way too hard to the "3 minutes to read" type articles. It was like reading a synopsis of a story instead of a story.

scoobs said:
I wish Bill the best, but getting people to read anything at all in 2016 is basically impossible so I'm not sure if they'll ever find real success.
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I read Grantland because it was one of the few places on the Internet you could go to find something to read read. There are enough clickfeed type, 300 word articles out there, but a dearth of long-form writing. Grantland's focus was long-form, and I hoped The Ringer would be a continuation of that philosophy, but it hasn't quite materialised like that.

Edit: I went down some Internet rabbit hole about an hour ago and ended up reading this old Grantland piece on New Jack.

http://grantland.com/features/new-jack-violent-wrestler-retired-ecw/?ex_cid=GrantlandFB

I really wish The Ringer would do stuff like this. Have they done anything the level of that Poker article from a few months back?
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
What do people think of the NBA Show host, Chris Vernon? It's weird, he's a little too AM radio for my taste stylistically, but he does have smart guests and asks smart questions. So it's turned into a pretty damn good podcast. It's not Zach Lowe good, but it's much better than it was before he arrived. Good hire.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Gigglepoo said:
What do people think of the NBA Show host, Chris Vernon? It's weird, he's a little too AM radio for my taste stylistically, but he does have smart guests and asks smart questions. So it's turned into a pretty damn good podcast. It's not Zach Lowe good, but it's much better than it was before he arrived. Good hire.
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I like it. He does have a very "radio" voice which isn't that common in podcasts (at least not the ones I listen to) but the content is better, and it's galaxies better than the bullshit they were trying to pass off as an NBA pod when Ringer first started.
 
B

bionic77

Member
scoobs said:
I read an article basically saying how badly the website was doing and it makes me sad because I love Simmons and want to support him, but I rarely find myself going there and when I do its to read an NBA column he wrote. I've browsed around and the other topics they're covering often make me think "who cares enough to read this?"

I wish Bill the best, but getting people to read anything at all in 2016 is basically impossible so I'm not sure if they'll ever find real success. Hopefully with that dreadful HBO show gone, the quality of BS podcasts and The Ringer in general will go way up. I've tried other Ringer podcasts but I haven't enjoyed any of them so I guess I'm just in it for the BS pod at this point.
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People really overestimated the power of Simmons brand.

Seems like this happens to everyone who leaves ESPN. They had a great relationship that benefited both of them. The way they left I can't see them getting back together.

His podcast is still great though. And he seems like a great producer. I think he will do fine if he focuses on that.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
Gigglepoo said:
What do people think of the NBA Show host, Chris Vernon? It's weird, he's a little too AM radio for my taste stylistically, but he does have smart guests and asks smart questions. So it's turned into a pretty damn good podcast. It's not Zach Lowe good, but it's much better than it was before he arrived. Good hire.
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Ninja Scooter said:
I like it. He does have a very "radio" voice which isn't that common in podcasts (at least not the ones I listen to) but the content is better, and it's galaxies better than the bullshit they were trying to pass off as an NBA pod when Ringer first started.
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I've been a Vernon fan a long time. When I lived in Memphis he was the drive-time sports guy and I always thought he had a future.

Sometimes it's good to have slightly more of a radio presence and someone with some professionalism and experience. And yeah, it's way better than what they were offering before, though it still feels a little bit like Simmons' podcast is the de facto NBA podcast.

bionic77 said:
People really overestimated the power of Simmons brand.

Seems like this happens to everyone who leaves ESPN. They had a great relationship that benefited both of them. The way they left I can't see them getting back together.

His podcast is still great though. And he seems like a great producer. I think he will do fine if he focuses on that.
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Honestly, I'm of the opinion that The Ringer won't exist in anything resembling its current form in a year. I like the site, though I like it less than Grantland. But it seems the writing is on the wall. Everything about this - the terrible ratings, the seemingly mediocre page views, HBO distancing themselves - screams that this HBO/Ringer venture is set to fail. That's kind of a bummer, and I'm not sure what Simmons does now.
 
A

A Serious Man

Member
I follow The Ringer on twitter and make an effort to visit the site but most of their content falls somewhere between Buzzfeed and Grantland. It's not a great look.
 
B

bionic77

Member
spyder_ur said:
I've been a Vernon fan a long time. When I lived in Memphis he was the drive-time sports guy and I always thought he had a future.

Sometimes it's good to have slightly more of a radio presence and someone with some professionalism and experience. And yeah, it's way better than what they were offering before, though it still feels a little bit like Simmons' podcast is the de facto NBA podcast.



Honestly, I'm of the opinion that The Ringer won't exist in anything resembling its current form in a year. I like the site, though I like it less than Grantland. But it seems the writing is on the wall. Everything about this - the terrible ratings, the seemingly mediocre page views, HBO distancing themselves - screams that this HBO/Ringer venture is set to fail. That's kind of a bummer, and I'm not sure what Simmons does now.
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The problem with the Ringer is content.

When Simmons was at ESPN he was just on many things you could read about. At the Ringer they don't really have any other strong writers or content producers (at least that I have seen). Would have really helped him to get a Zach Lowe type there, but again even as amazing is Lowe is he is not enough by himself. You need to have a lot of good content to get people to keep coming back. ESPN has it easy because they update their site with recaps and analysis of each nights games.

Simmons was really a great fit for ESPN. I think if the Ringer does not make it his best fit would be for another sports site or maybe just write for HBO directly.
 
K

KingKong

Member
After years of calling dozens of players injury prone, Simmons claiming that Gronk isn't injury prone because his injuries are so 'flukey' is pretty incredible
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
KingKong said:
After years of calling dozens of players injury prone, Simmons claiming that Gronk isn't injury prone because his injuries are so 'flukey' is pretty incredible
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Yeah, I laughed out loud at that one. Dudes as fragile as Bradford at this point. Probably more so.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
KingKong said:
After years of calling dozens of players injury prone, Simmons claiming that Gronk isn't injury prone because his injuries are so 'flukey' is pretty incredible
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You have to throw all analysis of Boston area teams out of the window when it comes to Simmons.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
TangoAlphaLima said:
So apparently The Ringer has a YouTube channel? I just realized this, not sure why it took me so long.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT83YP07yVuaH9J19YABhlw

But here's the disturbing part. They've been posting videos for months, but have only 3,211 subscribers (was 3,210 before I got there). This Ringer thing cannot be going all that well...
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"To be fair" in terms of the subscriber count, I don't recall Simmons ever even mentioning it, other than maybe super offhandedly. He pretty much seems to just promote the site and podcasts, and maybe expects people will find it from going to the site? Or maybe articles themselves contain these, and they're basically just additional content? The view counts are insanely bad for a professional site though. I mean I follow random-ass board-game people who are barely even known in hobbyist circles (and not "celebs" even by YT board-game standards) who have vlogs with 10x these views.

Another random observation along those lines of wtf are they doing. Simmons podcasts with friends generally are my favorite, and I rarely liked the non-friend pods (unless the people were writers or non-celebs), but man there is really a sameness to the pod schedule nowadays. He had some Bravo reality-TV guy on (ugh...isn't this exactly the type of stuff that other pods on the network are for) but other than that it's just Sal-Lombardi-House (who I've grown bored of) rinse & repeat. I do get a weird vibe that the whole thing is just gonna shut down in the next year, and maybe he's even actively looking into other opportunities. Although that's a bit of a dilemma, since he did correctly predict that cable sports was going the way of the dodo in its current incarnation, so it's not like those networks have much left to splurge on lavish hires based on their forecasts afaik.
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
The Ringer guy too big, too fast. They had 50 hires right out of the gate and Simmons even admitted that was more than they had planned. That scope has made it way harder for any one writer to stand out and get his or her own following. Although I like some of the NFL and NBA guys, I only know Mays by name. That's a problem.
 
S

slightconfuse

Banned
Gigglepoo said:
The Ringer guy too big, too fast. They had 50 hires right out of the gate and Simmons even admitted that was more than they had planned. That scope has made it way harder for any one writer to stand out and get his or her own following. Although I like some of the NFL and NBA guys, I only know Mays by name. That's a problem.
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Kevin clark is good for nfl
Kevin o'connor for nba stuff

agree that simmons needs to get some more people in the podcast rotation.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Simmons finally writes some more content and it's some embarrassingly (we're talking Rick Reilly tier) bad fan fiction about DeMarcus Cousins being traded to Boston. On top of that I go to my podcast feed to see that he's got a new podcast only to find it's a fucking podcast with rapper Gucci Mane. I have about as much interest in hearing Gucci Mane have a conversation with William Simmons as I do in listening to some of his music. Instant delete. Get it together, Bill.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Ninja Scooter said:
Simmons finally writes some more content and it's some embarrassingly (we're talking Rick Reilly tier) bad fan fiction about DeMarcus Cousins being traded to Boston. On top of that I go to my podcast feed to see that he's got a new podcast only to find it's a fucking podcast with rapper Gucci Mane. I have about as much interest in hearing Gucci Mane have a conversation with William Simmons as I do in listening to some of his music. Instant delete. Get it together, Bill.
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Hahahahaha you just pretty much wrote down the exact feelings and actions I went through the past couple days on these items. So sick of and uninterested in the Celtics stuff. He needs to go back to just doing a big football and pop-culture mailbag. Just something remotely interesting. Even funnier because he touts/brags about how he wrote something on his pods and Twitter and it's like...doesn't really count if no one gives a shit about the topic. Now do a mailbag or something with broader appeal and then you can brag. Dude is just checked out.
 
R

ryseing

Member
slightconfuse said:
At least the gaming podcast is pretty good

They have some good guests
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Jason is competent. Lindburgh is not that great.

AstroLad said:
Hahahahaha you just pretty much wrote down the exact feelings and actions I went through the past couple days on these items. So sick of and uninterested in the Celtics stuff. He needs to go back to just doing a big football and pop-culture mailbag. Just something remotely interesting. Even funnier because he touts/brags about how he wrote something on his pods and Twitter and it's like...doesn't really count if no one gives a shit about the topic. Now do a mailbag or something with broader appeal and then you can brag. Dude is just checked out.
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The Real Housewives pod last week was some of the best work he's done in years. I hadn't laughed at a Simmons pod in a long time, and the bit where Andy Cohen told his Scott Eastwood story had me in tears.

Oh, I see you didn't like it. I thought it was fantastic.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
AstroLad said:
That's a bummer but maybe they can just fill the void by doing a political pod with JackO, Cousin Sal, and maybe lure Adam Carolla over?
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The only void is on The Ringer itself, which probably recognizes it doesn't need to compete in this avenue on. As the article states, '1600 continues immediately as "Pod Save America", just through their "Crooked Media" label.

It doesn't solve the problem of finding more coherent podcasts for the Ringer, but in theory the political podcast issue is still resolved.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Crazymoogle said:
The only void is on The Ringer itself, which probably recognizes it doesn't need to compete in this avenue on. As the article states, '1600 continues immediately as "Pod Save America", just through their "Crooked Media" label.

It doesn't solve the problem of finding more coherent podcasts for the Ringer, but in theory the political podcast issue is still resolved.
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Oh yeah sorry I was just kidding based on how moronic the rest of the political commentary on The Ringer podcasts is, how funny it would be if they put together a replacement pod with those buffoons. And Simmons and his "both sides are pretty bad" bullshit could also be a guest sometimes to give the new podcast some "balance."
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
AstroLad said:
Oh yeah sorry I was just kidding based on how moronic the rest of the political commentary on The Ringer podcasts is, how funny it would be if they put together a replacement pod with those buffoons. And Simmons and his "both sides are pretty bad" bullshit could also be a guest sometimes to give the new podcast some "balance."
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He only does that to appear somewhat neutral, which is how the vast majority of sports personalities handle it. We all know he's a liberal, but he doesn't want to alienate the half of his fanbase that is conservative.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
TangoAlphaLima said:
He only does that to appear somewhat neutral, which is how the vast majority of sports personalities handle it. We all know he's a liberal, but he doesn't want to alienate the half of his fanbase that is conservative.
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He could also just not comment at all? I honestly don't doubt his earnestness in the "both sides" stuff. He doesn't really seem like the most politically savvy person and consider the folks he hangs out with. I'm sure JackO convinced him that Hillary's emails and Benghazi were A Big Deal years ago.
 
B

BUNTING1243

Banned
Gigglepoo said:
That designation was lost when Jon Lovett joined the crew.
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just listen to the Thursday podcast. i also used to like the Thursday podcast way more but since the election and all democratic strategy imploded I've been enjoying the exasperated anger of the Monday podcast more

Its a nice counterbalance to chapo
 
J

jtb

Banned
Didn't Medium just announce that it's doing a huge shift in direction + layoffs? And the Ringer's only 2016 breakout success is abandoning it?

Can't say the future looks particularly bright for the site.
 
B

Brakke

Banned
AstroLad said:
That's a bummer but maybe they can just fill the void by doing a political pod with JackO, Cousin Sal, and maybe lure Adam Carolla over?
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AstroLad said:
Oh yeah sorry I was just kidding
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Dog you shoulda put the joke disclaimer in the first post. I projectile vomited for fourteen minutes straight before I caught my breath enough to scroll down.

Adam Carolla political pod. Yikes.
 
L

LionPride

Banned
I actually like the stuff Robert Mays writes, I always have though. I also like the media coverage by most of their writers, that's good stuff.
 
K

Karish

Member
jtb said:
Didn't Medium just announce that it's doing a huge shift in direction + layoffs? And the Ringer's only 2016 breakout success is abandoning it?

Can't say the future looks particularly bright for the site.
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What? Their new thing is on Medium
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Just listened to the first episode - good stuff, per the usual, classic Keepin' It 1600 with a catchier title and music. :)
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
BUNTING1243 said:
just listen to the Thursday podcast. i also used to like the Thursday podcast way more but since the election and all democratic strategy imploded I've been enjoying the exasperated anger of the Monday podcast more

Its a nice counterbalance to chapo
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Yeah, I did stop listening to the Lovett casts. I don't listen to any podcast where people interrupt each other continuously to make stupid jokes. Not really want I want anymore.

I'll just stick with Vox's The Weeds for my politics talk. No reason to subscribe to a podcast when I can't listen to half the episodes.
 
C

Chumley

Banned
Gigglepoo said:
Yeah, I did stop listening to the Lovett casts. I don't listen to any podcast where people interrupt each other continuously to make stupid jokes. Not really want I want anymore.

I'll just stick with Vox's The Weeds for my politics talk. No reason to subscribe to a podcast when I can't listen to half the episodes.
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Lovett is really annoying. Every time Pfieffer and Favrau get deep into an interesting conversation he'll just interrupt with some joke and derail the whole thing.
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
Chumley said:
Lovett is really annoying. Every time Pfieffer and Favrau get deep into an interesting conversation he'll just interrupt with some joke and derail the whole thing.
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And those guys are so good! Really frustrating when one smelly fart ruins the whole party.
 
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