Sports Illustrated publisher Maven fired top soccer journalist Grant Wahl for his criticism of how the company handled job cuts and salary reductions amid the COVID-19 outbreak, according to an internal memo obtained by GeekWire.
Wahl, a 24-year Sports Illustrated veteran, said he was fired Friday with “no severance,” sparking a flood of reaction online from industry colleagues.
Maven, the Seattle-based media company that purchased publishing rights to Sports Illustrated last year, announced on March 30 that it would cut 9% of staff due to the impact from the novel coronavirus crisis. Sports Illustrated journalists represented 6% of the overall cost reduction.
In the letter to staff sent Friday, Maven CEO James Heckman said that Wahl “trumpeted” complaints about taking a salary cut. Heckman wrote that Wahl “made more than $350,000 last year to infrequently write stories that generated little meaningful viewership or revenue.”
“To complain about a personal pay reduction when 31 others had just lost their jobs is incomprehensible in light of the sacrifices others made to help limit layoffs and maintain livable salaries for our staff,” Heckman wrote. “Such a me-first attitude is not part of the tradition and culture Maven is committed to maintaining.
“As a result, we’ve decided to direct what would have been this person’s salary into additional severance pay and health benefits for those laid off who need it the most.”
Heckman does not identify Wahl by name in the memo, which you can read in full below.
Wahl criticized Maven earlier this week for how it was handling the cuts. “Thankful to have a job, but the people who were laid off from SI this week at least got a good severance package,” he wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “If we’re laid off July 1, we get absolutely nothing.”
Wahl added that his salary was decreased by 30% and Maven was “trying to make that permanent beyond the pandemic, which is shameful.” “Who would take advantage of a pandemic to permanently reduce someone’s salary beyond that pandemic? Maven and James Heckman would,” Wahl added in his social media post.
We’ve reached out to Wahl for more details, and will update this post when we hear back. Update: Here’s a tweet from Wahl:
1) I told Maven I was fine taking a 30% pay cut during the pandemic. But it was shameful to try to push through a permanent 30% cut beyond the pandemic.
2) My base salary was far below that, but I got a bonus because my bosses said my work was very good.
3) I write frequently. https://t.co/Q5BvV2CTeg— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) April 10, 2020
Update: Here’s a statement from the Sports Illustrated union. “We state in solidarity with Grant Wahl,” the letter reads. “We are not only disappointed by the move to dismiss our beloved colleague, the nation’s leading soccer writer, but appalled at how it was announced…”
Our statement on today’s events and those of the last few months: pic.twitter.com/dDV3LAmsqX
— Sports Illustrated Union (@si_union) April 11, 2020
Wahl is a longtime soccer journalist, covering multiple World Cup, Olympic, and other top sporting events. He is the author of New York Times-bestseller “The Beckham Experiment.” Wahl’s wife is Celine Gounder, a University of Washington grad and infectious disease specialist at NYU’s School of Medicine.
On top of Grant being being good/popular at his job and very nice, for them to do this in the midst of a pandemic where Grant’s wife is under immense stress as a leading infectious disease expert is so beyond disgusting. Consider my subscription canceled, you Maven shitheads. https://t.co/Ha5PbxMwyt
— Andy Glockner (@AndyGlockner) April 10, 2020
Grant Wahl’s writing and reporting has helped a generation of American readers better understand soccer in our country. He rules. He certainly didn’t deserve this. https://t.co/Gv1j1CcLln
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) April 10, 2020
.@MavenCoalition has systematically destroyed what was once the gold standard of sports journalism and it is incredibly depressing. https://t.co/5vOXL2Q2dE
— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) April 10, 2020
Serious tweet for a moment: What happened at SI is an absolute tragedy, and how they're treating employees, including the likes of Grant, is total bullshit that shouldn't be even remotely legal. https://t.co/EI2h0of4l2
— Chris Jones (@EnswellJones) April 10, 2020
Maven launched in 2017 and purchased publishing rights to Sports Illustrated last year from Authentic Brands Group, which had just bought Sports Illustrated from Meredith. Maven, which is publicly traded, raised $20 million in October.
Maven made headlines following layoffs at Sports Illustrated this past fall, which drew criticism from employees and unions including the LA Times Guild and the NewsGuild of New York.
Maven previously planned to have 200 team-specific websites under Sports Illustrated and 60 “financial journalist partnerships” within TheStreet, which it acquired last year. It also owns Say Media and Hubpages, among other content websites across various topics.
The company is led by Heckman, the Rivals.com founder and a former Yahoo executive. He helped Rivals.com raise $70 million in venture capital, but the site hit a wall during the dot-com bust and eventually sold to a Tennessee company, which was then sold to Yahoo in 2007 for a reported purchase price of $100 million.
“Our revised budget plan is anticipatory, and gets ahead of the curve in a surgical way,” Heckman wrote in a letter to staff last month. “We wish we could change the circumstances, but we are now positioned — with a talented, experienced team, diverse revenue streams, and a powerful business platform — to weather the ongoing COVID-19 storm and help independent media companies who are not.”
Here’s the full memo sent to Maven staff Friday:
To All Employees:
In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to touch base with everyone regarding an employee termination that took place this morning and no doubt will be a source of some one-sided punditry in the days to come. So we figured it best to lay out the facts to avoid confusion.
As part of the multi-faceted cost-containment strategy we unveiled last week in the face of coronavirus-driven declines in advertising revenue, a $4 million reduction in compensation was enacted across senior leaders and high-salary members of our team. This move helped limit layoffs to 9 percent of our workforce and we believe saved at least 30 jobs.
Every senior staff member volunteered to put their personal budgeted future at risk, to save jobs and ensure stable salaries for those making less. Everyone, that is, but one person. This person made more than $350,000 last year to infrequently write stories that generated little meaningful viewership or revenue. Yet he trumpeted that he thought it shameful to be asked to participate in helping his fellow workers. To complain about a personal pay reduction when 31 others had just lost their jobs is incomprehensible in light of the sacrifices others made to help limit layoffs and maintain livable salaries for our staff. Such a me-first attitude is not part of the tradition and culture Maven is committed to maintaining.
As a result, we’ve decided to direct what would have been this person’s salary into additional severance pay and health benefits for those laid off who need it the most.
To that end, we want to stress that our hearts go out to those who lost their jobs last week. Our moves were not a reflection on their talent or value but a sign of these uncertain times.
Thank you for your commitment, empathy and resourcefulness as we navigate both life in a pandemic and our rapidly changing media industry.
James Heckman
