Nate Silver Shockingly Leaves the New York Times for ESPN (and Keith Olbermann)
Nate Silver moving from the Tower of News to the Worldwide Leader. The wizard is taking his FiveThirtyEight blog and jumping ship to ESPN, reports his former co-worker Brian Stelter in The New York Times. Silver will now write and crunch numbers for the sports network while also "most likely" contributing to Keith Olbermann's new show, according to the Times report, that also has James Andrew Miller's byline attached.
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And, don't worry, it's not like he's completely abandoning his political affiliation now that he's living in the land of Baseball Tonight and Monday Night Football: Stelter reports he'll now contribute to ABC News' election coverage.
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Rarely does a free agent transaction in media garner this much attention. But this the guy who nailed the last two Presidential elections and was driving roughly half of The New York Times' web traffic leading into last November, and most expected him to stay within the Gray Lady's walls. Jill Abramson joked that Silver "has his own tower now," at the Times, while speaking at Business Insider's Ignite conference last November, practically issuing him a blank check upon his return. She knew Silver has unique cult of personality that people will follow anywhere: "He got huge, huge readership. Half the people coming [to NYTimes.com] searched for Nate, they weren’t coming for the rest of the Times, they came for him," she said. And he was happy at the time, too. He said as much in emails to the Atlantic Wire: "There are many wonderful things about The Times, including Jill, and I appreciate her kind words," he told us.
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But Stelter reports ESPN was able to snatch Silver for an undisclosed sum of money, and he'll be bringing his FiveThirtyEight blog with him. The Times licensed the FiveThirtyEight name from Silver, so expecting a change in content or tone now that someone else is signing the checks seems silly. He's turned down bigger, outside offers while at the Times over autonomy. And posts about intricate political polling lived in harmony with baseball MVP analysis at the Times, so why not at ESPN, too. They're just paying Silver to stand next to them. He can still talk about whatever nerdy things he wants.
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Silver just finished batting .1000 during the last election (topical sports analogy!), released a successful book (The Signal and the Noise), and took a small vacation. The point is, Silver has never been more in demand, and he's a proven winner. He had all the leverage going into contract negotiations, he was happy at the Times, and they wanted to make him happy. What could have persuaded him to go from the Times to ESPN is a mystery.
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(Hint: it was probably lots and lots of money.)
This post will be developing as news breaks.
