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Raina Kelley New Editor-In-Chief At The Undefeated

Raina previously worked with Newsweek and ESPN The Magazine

Russ Heltman

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The Undefeated has announced the promotion of a longtime voice at the website. Raina Kelley, managing editor of The Undefeated since November 2015, has been promoted to Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of the ESPN-owned site that blends race, culture, and sports all in one.

Kelley is taking over for Kevin Merida, who launched the project five years ago. Merida is now reporting to Mark Walker, Senior Vice President, Content Business Development and Innovation. 

Kelley has played a key role on the music side of The Undefeated. The “Music For The Movement” series, a collaboration with Disney Music Group’s Hollywood Records, was steered in part by Kelley. The new EIC also leads ESPN’s Black History Always movement, which highlights the success and greatness of black storytellers past the 28-day barrier in February.

“Raina is a committed, collaborative and creative presence who has been part of the visionary leadership for this platform from the start,” ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said. “We know The Undefeated will continue to thrive with Raina in this role.”

Before 2015, the Yale University graduate wrote for Newsweek magazine where she published a column on American culture, mostly keying in on issues of race, gender, and politics. She joined Newsweek in 2003 as an associate editor and left as a staff writer in 2011. Kelley joined ESPN in May 2011 as a senior editor at ESPN The Magazine, helping with coverage of the National Football League, tennis, action sports, the Olympics, and ESPN Enterprise Unit. 

“Kevin [Merida] has been an outstanding leader, an amazing teacher, and mentor to our team,” said Raina. “I assume this responsibility knowing he has left behind a brilliant team of creative minds at The U that will continue this vision well into the future.”Kelley is taking over a new role, but the management team beneath will remain largely unchanged.

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Dave Portnoy Blasts YouTube, Announces Other Plans For Airing Surviving Barstool

“If they’re not smart enough to watch a reality show and realize what’s going on. Fine, whatever.”

Jordan Bondurant

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(Photo: Marcellus Wiley)

Barstool Sports founder and president Dave Portnoy isn’t bending the knee to YouTube.

On Thursday, Portnoy held an emergency press conference on his X account to let fans know that Surviving Barstool — a reality show produced by the company — was being pulled from YouTube. This stemmed from repeated strikes levied against the Barstool channel on the platform due to alleged broadcasting of violent threats.

In one of the Surviving Barstool episodes, Barstool host Kirk Minihane apparently threatened to blow up the house of another show competitor. Portnoy said he was given the option by YouTube to either take down the episodes and edit them to remove the questionable content or continue to receive strikes.

“I’m not changing the f–king episodes,” he said.

“This is Barstool, we’re doing it our f–king way,” Portnoy added. “F–k YouTube if they’re not smart enough to watch a reality show and realize what’s going on. Fine, whatever.”

Ultimately the decision was made to move the Surviving Barstool episodes that had already aired to the outlet’s streaming platform Barstool TV. Future episodes of the season plus the live finale will be available for fans to watch for $9.99.

“I think if you’ve watched it, you’ll admit that it’s worth the price,” Portnoy said. “We gotta make up the money we’re going to lose with all that shit.”

Survivng Barstool is about what you would imagine. It’s the Barstool Sports version of the CBS show Survivor. Contestants on the show are Barstool employees who compete for a $100,000 prize.

Portnoy, who bought back ownership of the outlet he founded and built from the ground up this summer, made it clear that if people thought he would jump when YouTube says jump they need to think again.

“The show is the f–king show, and I would rather eat my f–king insides and smash my d–k with a hammer than have to change the f–king show to make YouTube happy,” he said.

Several Barstool employees responded similarly to Portnoy, airing their displeasure with the situation.

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Dave Portnoy Found Out About The CW, Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl Partnership on X

Portnoy reposted the company’s announcement that it had secured a distribution deal with The CW by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

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Dave Portnoy
Courtesy: Slaven Vlasic, Getty Images

Earlier today, it was announced that Barstool Sports had partnered with The CW to broadcast the 2023 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. However, it appears no one told the company’s founder, Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy reposted the announcement that it had secured a distribution deal to bring the bowl game to terrestrial television with The CW. He accompanied the post by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

The bowl game’s official X account wrote it was “thrilled to be able to bring the most cutting edge postseason experience to college football fans across the nation.”

Barstool Sports play-by-play voice Jake Marsh shared his enthusiasm for the partnership by calling it “huge news”.

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NSMA Names Finalists for 2023 National Awards

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention in June or July 2024.

Jordan Bondurant

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The National Sports Media Association (NSMA) on Wednesday announced its finalists for 2023 national awards.

The national sportswriter of the year finalists are: Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN; Dan Wetzel of Yahoo; Dana O’Neil of The Athletic; Jeff Passan of ESPN; Marc J. Spears of Andscape and ESPN; Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic; Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated; Peter King of NBC Sports; Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post, and Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.

The national Sportscaster of the Year finalists are: Brian Anderson of CBS/TBS/TNT; Charles Barkley of TNT/TBS; Doris Burke of ABC/ESPN; Jim Nantz of CBS; Joe Buck of ESPN; Joe Davis of FOX; Kevin Harlan of CBS/TNT/TBS/Westwood One; Mike Breen of ABC/ESPN; Mike Tirico of NBC, and Sean McDonough of ABC/ESPN.

The Hall of Fame Sportswriter finalists are: Christine Brennan, Claire Smith, Howard Bryant, Ira Berkow, Jayson Stark, Mike Downey, Ralph Wiley, Ray Didinger, Roger Kahn, and Wendell Smith.

The Hall of Fame sportscaster finalists are: Andrea Kremer, Charlie Neal, Don Criqui, Jaime Jarrin, James Brown, Joe Buck, Mary Carillo, Mike Tirico, Phyllis George, and Tim McCarver.

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention next summer.

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