Grantland.com has a new (interim) editor-in-chief. Following the dramatic firing of Bill Simmons, ESPN reporter and ABC News contributor Chris Connelly has announced that he will be taking the reins of the sports and pop culture website:
Excited to be joining @grantland33 as interim editor-in-chief. Hoping to continue the great work of Bill Simmons and this superb staff.
— Chris Connelly (@ChrisConnelly) May 27, 2015
In a press release statement, ESPN’s executive vice president for global strategy and original content Marie Donoghue said, “We are thrilled to have a journalist of Chris’ caliber join us on an interim basis as we go forward and build on the smart, fun, adventurous, creative, unexpected and vital spirit of Grantland. Chris has been an award-winning journalist and storyteller in sports, music and pop culture for over three decades, and as a longtime contributor at Grantland, he appreciates the incredible team we have assembled.”
“Bill Simmons had the vision to create Grantland, and his leadership, ideas, and inspiration made it singularly great,” Connelly added. “I’m looking forward to helping the writers, editors, and producers on this amazingly talented staff create more of the outstanding work for which they’ve rightly become known.”
For anyone who grew up in the 1990s, Connelly is most familiar as a regular fixture on MTV News and host of the MTV Movie Awards pre-show red carpet specials. In 2001, he moved to ESPN/ABC, where he periodically appeared on SportsCenter and contributed to ABC’s Oscar coverage.
Most recently, Simmons and Connelly can be seen, alongside movie critic Wesley Morris, in the Grantland Summer Movie Preview video series on YouTube, which continues to roll-out pre-taped episodes after the former editor-in-chief’s departure.
Watch the latest episode below, via Grantland:
[Photo via screengrab]
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