The Big Lead

Last updated
The Big Lead
The Big Lead.png
Type of site
 Blog
Available in English
OwnerMinute Media
Created byJason McIntyre
David Lessa
URL www.thebiglead.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedFebruary 24, 2006;17 years ago (2006-02-24)
Current statusActive

The Big Lead is an American news blog. The website mainly covers sports news, although it also touches on a varying degree of other news topics ranging from politics to pop culture. Launched on February 24, 2006, it was co-founded by former sportswriter Jason McIntyre and his college friend David Lessa. In June 2010, McIntyre sold the site to Fantasy Sports Ventures for "low seven figures." [1] Gannett purchased Fantasy Sports Ventures on January 24, 2012, integrating the site into the digital network of USA Today. [2]

Contents

As of 2009, the site averages over 8 million monthly page views. [3] Since 2012, McIntyre has hosted a weekly radio program on Fox Sports Radio named after the website, The Big Lead With Jason McIntyre. [4]

In March 2019, Gannett sold The Big Lead to Minute Media, owner of 12up.com; McIntyre and several other writers were laid off. [5]

Format and content

The site is usually updated ten to fifteen times a day between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with each post receiving its own title and space for registered readers to post comments. The publishing day usually begins with the morning "Roundup", which provides links to varying news stories of interest in paragraph form at the top, and mainly links to different sports-related stories at the bottom of the column page. The "Roundup" feature is usually accompanied by a photograph of an attractive model or actress, as well as relevant or humorous YouTube clips. For many years, the site staged what it called a "Culture Tournament", in which 64 different sports figures, celebrities or other items of relevance (such as "Michael Phelps' Bong Hit," in which the Olympic Gold medal swimmer was caught smoking marijuana in 2009) are seeded in a bracket styled after that used to outline teams competing in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Readers are allowed to vote one time for each match up until a winner is decided. In 2008, ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews beat out actress/singer Jessica Simpson. [6] For the 2009 edition, Megan Fox was crowned champion narrowly over Andrews. [7]

Gaining notoriety

The Big Lead first gained notoriety after it obtained interviews with syndicated sportswriter and ESPN Poker commentator Norman Chad, and Kansas City Star and Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock. The interview with Whitlock generated controversy when he proceeded to trash his then-ESPN colleagues Scoop Jackson and Mike Lupica, [8] the fallout of which ended Whitlock's association with the network. [9]

The Colin Cowherd incident

On April 5, 2007, Colin Cowherd, then host of a self-titled radio program on ESPN Radio, instructed his show's listeners to flood The Big Lead with traffic. The surge in activity overloaded the website's servers, knocking The Big Lead offline for about 48 hours, before the site was restored on April 7. [10] The attack appeared to be unprovoked, with Cowherd saying "wouldn't it be great if we could blow up a website?". His actions drew criticism from the blogosphere, as well as ESPN.com's ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber, who called his actions "immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive and dumb." [11] However, since such actions were not forbidden by ESPN at that time, Cowherd did not face any disciplinary action for the incident. Coincidentally, nine years later in 2016, McIntyre joined Cowherd and Jason Whitlock as a co-commentator on their Fox Sports 1 talk show, Speak for Yourself with Cowherd & Whitlock . [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Simmons</span> American sports writer (born 1969)

William John Simmons III is an American podcaster, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer. Simmons first gained attention with his website as "The Boston Sports Guy" and was recruited by ESPN in 2001, where he eventually operated the website Grantland and worked until 2015. At ESPN, he wrote for ESPN.com, hosted his own podcast on ESPN.com titled The B.S. Report and was an analyst for two years on NBA Countdown.

<i>The Herd with Colin Cowherd</i>

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is an American sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with celebrities, sports analysts and sports figures.

ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Communications. The channel is primarily dedicated to coverage of college athletics, and is also used as an additional outlet for general ESPN programming. ESPNU is based alongside its sister networks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcellus Wiley</span> American football player (born 1974)

Marcellus Vernon Wiley Sr. is an American sportscaster and former American football defensive end who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars, making the Pro Bowl in 2001.

Jason Lee Whitlock is an American sports columnist and podcaster. He hosts a program for the conservative media company Blaze Media titled Fearless with Jason Whitlock. Whitlock is a former columnist at The Kansas City Star, AOL Sports, Foxsports.com, and ESPN. He was a radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area. Whitlock played Division I college football at Ball State as an offensive lineman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Cowherd</span> American sports media personality

Colin Murray Cowherd is an American sports media personality. Cowherd began his broadcasting career as sports director of Las Vegas television station KVBC and as a sports anchor on several other stations before joining ESPN in 2003, where he hosted a radio show on the ESPN Radio network and also became one of the original hosts of ESPN's television program SportsNation, as well as Colin's New Football Show. Cowherd is currently the host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KORE</span> Radio station in Springfield-Eugene, Oregon

KORE is a radio station in Eugene, Oregon, licensed to Springfield and Eugene. The station is owned by KORE Broadcasting, LLC.

FoxSports.com is a sports news website operated by Fox Sports Media Group. The website primarily features streaming video content surrounding sports-related topics, including segments and features from the division's studio programming, and streaming of Fox Sports cable networks for subscribers on participating television providers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Florio</span> American sportswriter

Michael James Florio is an American sportswriter, author, radio host, and television commentator. He writes for Profootballtalk.com which he created and owns. He also hosts the daily NFL talk show PFT Live on Peacock with Chris Simms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Beadle</span> Sports reporter

Michelle Denise Beadle is an American sports reporter and host who is part of the San Antonio Spurs broadcast team. Beadle was formerly the co-host of the ESPN morning sports show Get Up! along with Jalen Rose and Mike Greenberg, the co-host of SportsNation on ESPN2, and former host of Winners Bracket on ABC with Marcellus Wiley.

<i>Grantland</i> Sports and pop culture website owned by ESPN

Grantland was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. Grantland was named after famed early-20th-century sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880–1954).

<i>Fox NFL Kickoff</i> Television series

Fox NFL Kickoff is an American sports television program that originally debuted on FS1 on September 8, 2013, and moved to Fox on September 13, 2015, and serves as the secondary pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the NFL on Fox brand.

Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that produces content on sports and pop culture. Founded by David Portnoy in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts. It is wholly owned by Penn Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Spain</span> American sports reporter (born 1980)

Sarah Colby Spain is an American sports reporter. She works as an espnW.com columnist, ESPN Radio host, ESPN television personality and occasional SportsCenter reporter for ESPN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristine Leahy</span> American television host and sports reporter

Kristine Leahy is an American television host and former sports reporter. She is most known as a former host on NBC's American Ninja Warrior. She is the former co-host and newswoman of Fox Sports 1's simulcast of The Herd with Colin Cowherd and was also a former anchor and reporter for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

Andscape, formerly The Undefeated, is a sports and pop culture website owned and operated by ESPN. Launched May 17, 2016, the site describes itself as “the premier platform for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Volume</span> Sports media company

The Volume is a sports media company founded by Colin Cowherd. The Volume currently hosts multiple podcasts and produces video content for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms. Unlike traditional sports media which publishes on a regular schedule, The Volume produces content rapidly to meet fan demand around sporting events.

Sports podcasts are a subset of podcasts that cover topics related to sports and athletes. Content can include sports news, predictions and analysis of game results, debates and discussions between hosts, and interviews with sports figures.

Minute Media Ltd. is an international digital media publisher based in London, England, with an associated research and development center in Tel Aviv, Israel. From its roots as the soccer publication 90min the company has grown into a major new media holding company of a number of important properties in the field of sports news and commentary, including The Players' Tribune and the FanSided blog network.

References

  1. ↑ Weprin, Alex (June 2, 2010). "The Big Lead Sold to Fantasy Sports Ventures". Adweek . Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Gannett Buys Big Lead Sports Owner Fantasy Sports Ventures". AllThingsD . January 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ Bryan Armen Graham (December 11, 2009). "Best of the Decade: Movies, TV Shows, Books, Blogs". Sports Illustrated . Time Inc. – via CNN.
  4. ↑ "The Big Lead with Jason McIntyre". Premiere Networks .
  5. ↑ Marchand, Andrew (March 14, 2019). "Sale of The Big Lead leaves website founder Jason McIntyre out". New York Post. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ "2008 Culture Bracket". The Big Lead. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05.
  7. ↑ "2009 Culture Bracket". The Big Lead. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05.
  8. ↑ McIntyre, Jason (September 22, 2006). "Oh Damn, Did Whitlock Really Say That? A Q&A with Jason Whitlock". The Big Lead. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  9. ↑ Richard Deitsch (March 12, 2008). "Anonymous No More". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. – via CNN.
  10. ↑ McIntyre, Jason (April 9, 2007). "On Cowherd, Our Site, and the Ombudsman's Swift Response". The Big Lead. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  11. ↑ Schreiber, Le Anne (April 8, 2007). "Cowherd's 'Attack' on blog: 'Zero tolerance'". ESPN.com . Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  12. ↑ Draper, Kevin (May 26, 2016). "All Takes Matter Signs Blogger To Join Colin Cowherd And Jason Whitlock". Deadspin . Retrieved October 27, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.