Even if you disagree with him-and I certainly do on Grantland and building mornings around Skip Bayless-he remains among the company’s most thoughtful spokespeople. One immediate suggestion would be to get president John Skipper out in front of press more. But ESPN, whether network officials want to admit or not, needs to turn its external PR around in 2016. Of course, even after an Annus horribilis, neither Fox Sports nor any of ESPN’s other competitors have closed the perception (or ratings) gap regarding who the most dominant media player in sports is. Smith has become the on-air face of the company), an NFL reporter exhibiting an embarrassing display of entitlement off hours at a parking garage, an acrimonious split with Bill Simmons, a continuing inflexibility when it comes to institutional attribution of other outlets and on and on and on. There were the layoffs, the cancelation of millions of cable subscriptions (“cord cutters”), a decline in SportsCenter and NFL ratings, the shuttering of Grantland just months after pledging long-term commitment, a region (New England), at least anecdotally, that no longer trusts the network’s reporting, the still-awaited launch of The Undefeated, high-profile talent suspensions, company personalities threatening NBA MVPs, the First Take-ization of content beyond that show (Stephen A. But the company’s narrative for 2015 was decidedly awful. ESPN remains the dominant media player in sports and will be so for some time. “And that was never the narrative, nor the reality here.' “We’re just another company now,” the longtime ESPN-er told me that week.

John skipper espn