In the last month, Bill Simmons has been criticized for the lack of diversity at his digital media company The Ringer, which he launched in 2016 and sold to Spotify earlier this year. After receiving backlash for a New York Times story detailing staff concern over the lack of diversity, Simmons addressed the issue on a podcast episode.
“I wish it had been a bigger priority for us to really make a bigger commitment to diversity than we did,” Simmons said Friday. “I think, in the moment, we’re looking at stuff, you pursue certain people, it doesn’t work out. You feel like you’re trying. And I think the moment that the country is having, in general, these last four weeks, is if you feel like you’re trying, that’s actually not good enough. We’re going to do better.”
The backlash came in the wake of Ryen Russillo praising Simmons for hiring a diverse group of talent, a compliment The Ringer Union quickly countered.
“In 2019, 86% of speakers on The Ringer Podcast Network were white. We have zero black editors,” the union released in a statement. “We have zero black writers assigned full time to the NBA or NFL beats. Our union is currently bargaining for practices to improve our diversity and inclusion.”
The New York Times continued the conversation, detailing the union’s concern about diversity at The Ringer, where Simmons was quoted as saying “this isn’t Open Mic Night.” Simmons’ quote made headlines and garnered much indignation, but he provided the quote’s full context during his Friday podcast.
For their story, Simmons was asked the following question by The New York Times via email:
“Current and former staffers told us that it got harder for young writers — parenthesis — including but not limited to people of color — end parenthesis — to get more responsibility and visibility after podcasts became a higher priority at The Ringer in late 2017, early 2018. For example, they said that during the first few months of The Rewatchables, there were opportunities for younger, more obscure folks to participate. But by early 2018, it was mostly senior folks like you, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey and Mallory Rubin, can you comment on this?”
“That’s absurd,” Simmons replied in an email. “We were a startup those first two years, trying a whole bunch of different things. Eventually, we realized that podcasts were the biggest financial part of our business, so we needed to put our best people in them. Again, it’s a business, this isn’t Open Mic Night. As for The Rewatchables, I created that podcast, and it was built around me and Chris Ryan. I’ve hosted the vast majority of them. It’s one of our most popular and lucrative podcasts, and one of the biggest pop culture podcasts, period. I’m proud of the show and how we manage it.”
Simmons since offered the predictable ‘we need to do better’ sentiment, but he also noted it’s one of the reasons why he moved the company to Spotify. “I wanted to tap into their HR and their diversity teams and really try to reshape our company,” Simmons said Friday.
Simmons understands why he is being judged and the need to improve, but asks his audience for “time” to correct the issue.
