Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy published an editorial piece Wednesday night detailing just how far his company has come, in spite of its limitations, critics and enemies.
His post was inspired by a Nielson poll recognizing Barstool as the 10th largest Distributed Media Company, 48th largest destination on the internet with over 65 million unique visitors in May alone. Those numbers had “El Presidente” claim “We are bigger than Tastemade, Vice, ESPN Digital, Turner Digital, The New York Times and The Washington Post.”
He added that nothing Nielson measured accounts for Sirius XM, Snapchat, podcasting or Barstool’s app, all of which serve as a large portion of the company’s business model.
“Yet despite it all, we continue to grow, conqueror and eat the Internet,” Portnoy said. “I mean these are truly mind-boggling numbers.”
Portnoy will be the first to admit, he isn’t the most likeable guy. But as the Nielson ratings he presents prove, he and Barstool do deserve respect (strictly from a content and coverage standpoint) for building into the media powerhouse it has become.
Even Portnoy’s top guys laughed at the idea of getting to where they are now. As the resident jocks of sports media, Portnoy and Barstool won’t be shy about bragging on the accomplishments they’ve enjoyed. And to this point, they’ve earned the right to brag, like them or not.
