While several upstart digital media companies have been struggling, Bill Simmons has found a groove with The Ringer, his pop culture and sports outlet, which is celebrating its third anniversary this month.
After leaving ESPN in 2015—capping a 14-year stint where, among other things, he launched the Grantland sports-and-pop-culture website—Simmons created a site that was much more than just Grantland 2.0. The Ringer now boasts a whopping 30 podcasts—including The Bill Simmons Podcast, Binge Mode, The Ringer MLB Show, Bachelor Party, One Shining Podcast and Black on the Air With Larry Wilmore—which had 53.5 million downloads in May. Podcast ad sales surpassed $15 million in 2018, a number that is significantly higher this year.
The outlet has branched out into Twitter aftershows for Game of Thrones (Talk the Thrones) and Big Little Lies (Big Little Live), and a Bachelor show for Hulu (Can I Steal You for a Second?). And the site itself had 46 million page views and 9 million…
