NFL’s New TV Order

New pod: former WaPo reporter @benjstrauss.bsky.social on paper’s mass layoffs...plus all the sports media news you can use.

open.spotify.com/episode/4pvE...

Extra, Extra ... read all about college football ahead of the national championship game.

All of @postsports.bsky.social's pre-national title game coverage in one place, including work from Chuck Culpepper, @emilygiam.bsky.social, @benjstrauss.bsky.social, @barrysvrlugawp.bsky.social, @briannaschroer.bsky.social + @samaha.bsky.social: collegesportsmoney.substack.com/p/cfp-title-...

Pablo Torre pushes buttons — and boundaries — to expose sports secrets With scoops from the NFL, NBA and beyond, Torre’s hit show — and the way he makes it — is ruffling feathers across the sports landscape.

"Torre has become almost as ubiquitous among online sports fans as Dave Portnoy (Barstool) and Pat McAfee (ESPN), and he has done it in improbable fashion: by morphing from a talking head into an investigative reporter."
@benjstrauss.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

Pablo Torre pushes buttons — and boundaries — to expose sports secrets With scoops from the NFL, NBA and beyond, Torre’s hit show — and the way he makes it — is ruffling feathers across the sports landscape.

New from me @postsports.bsky.social: I wrote about Pablo Torre, his podcast and whether he’s bending the rules of sports media or rewriting them in his run of major scoops www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

Nick Wright, Fox Sports star, keeps cashing in on his Chiefs obsession A Kansas City native, Wright has turned loving the Chiefs — and trolling their rivals — into an art form.

New: I wrote about Nick, TV's biggest Chiefs fan www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

NEW: The New York Times has declined to voluntarily recognize the Athletic as part of the Times Guild. In letter to staffers, Times says it would recognize a separate Athletic bargaining unit, a la Wire Cutter. Staffers have petitioned the NLRB for a hearing.

Journalists for the Athletic push to join the New York Times union It’s unclear whether the Times, which shuttered its own sports desk after buying the Athletic, will fight the journalists’ effort to join the bargaining unit.

NEW: The staff of the Athletic has signed union cards and today petitioned NYT management to join the Times Guild www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

NBA Ratings panic, a tale as old as time

March 1991: "NBC's ratings are down 12%...after NBC's four-year, $600 million NBA contract was touted as the deal of the decade."

June 1999: "In the first season without (MJ) the ratings fell to their lowest levels in 18 years."

July 2007: NBA ratings down

What should we know about NBA viewership? And is Cowherd right? www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/...

What should we know about NBA viewership? And is Cowherd right? www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/...

NBA ratings are down. Three-pointers are up. And the discourse is everywhere. It has been a winter of discontent for the league even after it signed 11-year, $76 billion broadcast contracts.

Happy Hannukah! Merry Christmas!

I wrote about TV ratings, the *discourse* and the winter of discontent for the NBA.

w/ help from Kendrick Perkins, Vincent Goodwill, Brian Scalabrine, Frank Isola, Brian Windhorst. Kirk Goldsberry and Sam Smith www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/...

Stephen A. Breaks the Bank & World Cup Media Limbo Podcast Episode · The Varsity · 12/11/2024 · 41m

New pod: WaPo's Ben Strauss on:
* The Big Ten media deal
* Stephen A
* FIFA Women's World Cup media rights
* ESPN's Simpsonscast

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

thanks for sharing!

‘He was the guy’: How Rudy Martzke invented the sports media beat The USA Today sports-TV columnist, who died last week at 82, was feared by some broadcasters and adored by others.

NEW: I wrote a remembrance of Rudy Martzke, the king of sports media.

“I cannot tell you how influential he was," said Mark Shapiro. "He’d be in the corner of the [Super Bowl] parties, everyone was working him, kissing the ring. It was insane!” www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/...

Rise and whine: Big Ten football fans cry foul over early kickoffs Fans of Ohio State and other Big Ten schools say they hate noon kick-offs. TV ratings say otherwise.

NEW: I hung out with Ohio State fans tired of drinking at 9 am for all their noon games and wrote about the Big Ten TV deal, probably the biggest, most-complicated ever in sports. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/...