The Ringer is a sports and pop culture website and podcast network, founded by sportswriter Bill Simmons in 2016 and owned by

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

since 2020.

History

The Ringer was launched in March 2016 by Bill Simmons, who brought along several editors who had previously worked with him on ''

Grantland ''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed e ...

'', an

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

-owned blog he operated from 2011 to 2015. At launch, the Ringer had a staff of 43 and focused primarily on sports and pop culture as content areas, with a few writers also working on technology and politics.

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, the network on which Simmons hosted his weekly television program '' Any Given Wednesday'' one season in 2016, was an initial investor in the website. The website was previously published on the

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

platform. In May 2017, The Ringer entered into an advertising and technology partnership with

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...

(owner of '' SB Nation''), under which Vox would handle advertising sales, and give the site access to its in-house publishing platform. Former Grantland writers who have since written for or worked for The Ringer include

Mark Titus Mark Titus (born June 25, 1987) is an author, podcast host, and former walk-on basketball player at Ohio State. Basketball career Titus played high school basketball at Brownsburg High School (BHS) in Brownsburg, Indiana. For Brownsburg High, ...

Shea Serrano Shea Serrano is an American author, journalist, and former teacher. He is best known for his work with the sports and pop culture websites, '' The Ringer'' and ''Grantland'', as well as his books, including '' The Rap Year Book'', '' Basketball ...

, Ben Lindbergh, Robert Mays, Sean Fennessey, Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, Juliet Litman, Craig Gaines, Bryan Curtis, David Shoemaker, Ryan O'Hanlon, Danny Chau, Jason Concepcion, Riley McAtee, Joe Fuentes, and Tate Frazier. In May 2018, The Ringer published a story by Ben Detrick about

Bryan Colangelo Bryan Paul Colangelo (born June 1, 1965) is an American basketball executive who was the former general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also served as president ...

, then the GM of the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

, and his apparent use of various

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

accounts to criticize players and defend himself. This led to Colangelo's resignation on June 7, 2018. In August 2019, The Ringers editorial staff voted to unionize with the

Writers Guild of America, East The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media. The Writers Guild of America, East is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America West. Together the guilds admin ...

. The union was voluntarily recognized by the Ringer's management four days later. On February 5, 2020, subscription music streaming service

announced it was acquiring The Ringer for an estimated $195 million and an additional $50 million in performance-driven incentives. Spotify chief content officer Dawn Ostroff stated that Simmons was "one of the brightest minds in the game and he has successfully innovated as a writer and content creator across mediums and platforms."

Content

Like the content on the website, the Ringer's podcast network covers both sports and pop culture. The flagship podcast, ''The Bill Simmons Podcast'', is an interview show hosted by Simmons, featuring other Ringer writers and podcast hosts as well as athletes, filmmakers, comedians, and pop culture figures. Popular podcast hosts include former ''

Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form fro ...

'' correspondent

Larry Wilmore Elister Larry WilmoreThe name Elister L. Wilmore is given at This matches the birth date and birthplace for "Larry Wilmore" at (born October 30, 1961) is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He served as the "Senior Black Corresp ...

(host of ''Black on the Air'') and

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

-winning chef

David Chang David Chang (Korean: ; born August 5, 1977) is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaura ...

(''The Dave Chang Show''). Former podcasts include '' Keepin' it 1600'', a politics podcast featuring former Obama speechwriters

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau (; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

, Dan Pfeiffer, and others. After leaving the Ringer, the hosts of ''Keepin' it 1600'' created a new podcast called ''

Pod Save America ''Pod Save America'' is an American progressive political podcast produced and distributed by Crooked Media. The podcast debuted in January 2017 and airs twice weekly, with the Tuesday edition hosted by former Barack Obama staffers Jon Favreau, ...

'' as part of their own new media company,

Crooked Media Crooked Media is a progressive American political media company. It was founded in 2017 by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers and former co-hosts of the '' Keepin' it 1600'' podcast. Dan Pfeiffer, also ...

. In 2017, The Ringer began the video podcast series ''Talk the Thrones'', an

aftershow An aftershow or after-show is a genre of television talk show whose topic is another television program. An aftershow is typically broadcast immediately after a new episode of its corresponding program to help retain the audience, and to provide ad ...

for ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'' hosted by Ringer staff writers and

live-streamed Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

on Twitter. ''Talk the Thrones'' is a continuation of '' After the Thrones'', which aired on HBO. The Ringer premiered ''

Binge Mode ''Binge Mode'' is a pop culture podcast produced by The Ringer. It is hosted by the website's editor-in-chief, Mallory Rubin, and former senior creative, Jason Concepcion. The first episode premiered on June 5, 2017. ''Binge Mode'' has been na ...

'' in 2017, a podcast that has recapped every episode of ''Game of Thrones'' and every book in the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' series. As of April 30, 2018, The Ringer's world-wide Alexa ranking is 2,077 with over 15 million views per month. Of those, 6,150,000 are unique visitors.

Podcasts

The list of podcasts offered as of August 2021. The Ringer podcast network features a slate of more than 30 podcasts. Since being acquired by Spotify in February 2020, The Ringer has continued to publish its podcasts across platforms while promoting additional shows that are exclusive to Spotify.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ringer American blogs Sports blogs Internet properties established in 2016 Podcasting companies Spotify 2020 mergers and acquisitions American entertainment news websites American review websites Television websites Entertainment websites American sport websites