Nate Silver, who’s blog FiveThirtyEight gained him international renown as a political pundit/prognosticator, will leave The New York Times and take his talents to Bristol, CT to work for the Worldwide Leader.
Silver’s byline was considered to be NYT’s most marketable asset and losing him will be a major blow for The Times.
According to Forbes, Silver will have an expanded role for ESPN:
Silver will relocate his blog, FiveThirtyEight, and will also be a contributor to Keith Olbermann’s new weeknight talk show, according to the Times. He’ll also be a regular presence on ABC, ESPN’s sister network under the Disney umbrella, and will appear on programming including Academy Awards coverage, according to Politico’s Mike Allen.
While there is no denying that Silver is an asset in the politcal world, he is an avid sports fan and he now has perhaps the best platform to purvey that love to the masses.
The Times was reportedly trying extremely hard to keep Silver in New York, going as far as giving him a staff of 12 writers to cover pretty much whatever he wanted, but they couldn’t compete with whatever ESPN had to offer.
Silver’s defection is perhaps just a footnote in the commentary on the tragic demise of the newspaper industry, but it is hard to ignore the parallel here.
