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ESPN IS SUSPENDING suspending its website Grantland, the company announced via a press release this afternoon.

Grantland was previously run by Bill Simmons, who was effectively fired from the company five months ago. Simmons has since joined HBO, where he will debut a new show in 2016.

In shutting down Grantland, ESPN cited the need to “direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.”

ESPN has said that Grantland writers will have their contracts honoured, and that its intent is to hire the former employees to write for other ESPN platforms. All Grantland content will be archived on ESPN’s website, according to CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter.

Here is the announcement from ESPN:

Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland. After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.

“Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun. We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent. Thanks to all the other writers, editors and staff who worked very hard to create content with an identifiable sensibility and consistent intelligence and quality.

“Despite this change, the legacy of smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms.”

The news prompted Andy Greenwald, one of the faces of Grantland’s entertainment wing, to reveal that he had already committed to follow the many who had filed through the exit door since the writing on the wall became difficult to ignore after Simmons’ exit.

Grantland editor Ryan O’Hanlon also chose to let the gallows humour ring out.

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