We’ve interviewed a ton of great guests during this run, but no show had as many downloads as our conversation with ESPN’s Josh Elliott. It wouldn’t be right to end the show without having him on again (in hopes that traffic magic returns with him, of course.)
Elliott is leaving his gig as the morning host of ESPN’s SportsCenter to take a job as the news reader (or news anchor depending on who he’s trying to impress) at Good Morning America.
The conversation is a lot about how a guy can go from Sports Illustrated to Good Morning America in two simple steps (step one, be handsome; step two, be really really good). We talk about how different the world of sports blogs has been in the last three years since live AM SportsCenter came into our lives and how Twitter has somehow made news break backwards. Trust me, the idea makes sense, even if the concept doesn’t.
Mostly we talk about Josh’s love for news and how he is, “equally interested in interviewing a world leader and learning how to make the perfect omelet. To me, they are equally stimulating.”
Josh is great and there’s a lot in this interview that anyone in our business should listen to very closely. Here’s wishing great success to Josh at GMA, and one day, let’s hope gets to crack a few eggs with Kim Jong Il. That would be great TV.
The second half of the show features our long-time bloggy friend AJ Daulerio. Did you know that he’ll soon pass Will Leitch in terms of time served at the helm of Deadspin? It seems impossible to believe, but true. We talk about how Deadspin has changed in the last few years and what’s on the horizon in the ever-changing world of Gawker Media.
Speaking of Gawker, Daulerio had a fascinating response to my question of who he feels his biggest competition is. It’s not other sports blogs. It’s not the New York Post. It’s the other sites at Gawker. He’s more concerned with out-trafficking the folks he shares an office with than those he shares a genre.
This ties in to our long-standing conversation about the idea of a “sports blog community” and if that’s an actual thing or just an idea we came up with that made us feel like we were part of something that, per Daulerio, may never have really existed in the way we thought. It is interesting how the industry has changed over the last three years. We also talk about Bill Simmons’ new blog venture, if that’s going to be the next great sports website and how you don’t have to be first to stand out; you just have to be better than everyone else (money helps).
Oh…right…Brett Favre’s penis. We talk about that, Jenn Sterger and if Deadspin feels any pressure to find the next story. It’s a very interesting look into how Nick Denton runs his operation and an extremely candid conversation by AJ, certainly because he knows Nick Denton will never listen to a word of it.
Last, what does the future hold? And, perhaps most importantly, is it wearing clogs?
Thanks for listening. One show left. Stop asking me why I’m quitting and just listen to the damn shows.