Last week, Dan Patrick signed with Sports Illustrated, presumably for more money than ESPN was offering him. This week, Rick Reilly, longtime SI columnist, made the opposite move, also presumably for more money.
Patrick and Reilly have played ESPN and SI against each other for their financial gain. But the network and magazine are stupid to engage in these lateral trades. Anyone who cares about following the work of Dan Patrick and Rick Reilly already watches ESPN and subscribes to Sports Illustrated. To the rest of us, all white guys reporting on sports look the same.
UPDATE: Rick Reilly confirmed the pay increase, saying “the money [at ESPN] is ridonkulous.”
We aren’t sure if there is more confusion over whether or not the New York Observer will sell, or over what color the newspaper actually is.
Bruce Wasserstein’s interest in the New York Observer is cooling, according to a source close to the situation.
Allen & Co. is handling the sale for the Observer’s founder and longtime owner, Arthur Carter. The peach-colored weekly has carved a niche covering the media elite and the political and society whirl in uptown Manhattan ???????? but it has never rung up a profit. Currently, it is said to be losing about $2 million a year.
Keith Kelly reports that Harvey and Bob Weinstein, don’t want the Observer, nor do Mort Zuckerman and Jeffrey Epstein. Michael Steinhardt? Nope — he doesn’t want it either.
But, the same rumors have been swirling for months, with the same reporting mistakes being made. Obviously learning nothing from the crap everyone gave David Carr when he labled the paper “pink,” Kelly describes the paper as “peach.”
Since we know it has been decided that the official cover of the Observer is “salmon,” we just don’t know how much of these stories we actually believe.
BRUCE LOSES JUICE [Keith J. Kelly, NYP]