The Washington Post’s losses have become ESPN’s gain.
On Monday, the network will announce the hiring of multiple former Washington Post sportswriters, including Chuck Culpepper, Ben Strauss, Kent Babb, and Kareem Copeland, multiple sources tell Front Office Sports. All four writers were laid off by the Post as part of the paper’s widespread layoffs last month. Additional ex-WaPo hires at ESPN are also expected.
ESPN declined to comment.
The hires come roughly a month after the Post shuttered its storied sports section as part of mass layoffs that impacted roughly half the newsroom. Nearly all of the Post’s 45-person sports staff were let go in the layoffs, which affected at least 300 journalists in the paper’s roughly 800-person newsroom.
Since closing its sports department, multiple outlets have scooped up members of the Post’s former roster. That includes The Athletic, which hired six Post alums, including sports editor Jason Murray, longtime baseball writer Barry Svrluga, and Nationals beat writer Spencer Nusbaum. Steven Ginsberg, the executive editor of The Athletic, was a longtime editor at the Post before joining the New York Times-owned sports media company.
Additionally, the Baltimore Banner announced it is expanding its sports coverage into D.C. following the void in coverage the Post’s layoffs created. Ex-Post Nationals beat reporter Andrew Golden announced last week he is joining the local outlet as a sports enterprise and features reporter.
It’s currently unclear what roles the ex-WaPo staffers joining ESPN will occupy at the Worldwide Leader. At the newspaper, Babb was a sports features writer who profiled figures such as LSU coach Kim Mulkey and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Culpepper was a national college sports writer, and Strauss covered sports media. Copeland covered multiple beats during his eight-year run at the newspaper, including women’s college basketball.
