A fired Sports Illustrated journalist who wrote for the title for almost 25 years and its new publisher have both moved quickly to tell their sides of the story about the termination. And of course, it played out on social media.
Grant Wahl, a prominent senior soccer writer at the magazine, said on Twitter on Friday that he had been fired by Seattle-based Maven Media, which purchased the publishing rights to the title from Meredith Corp. last year. “No severance. Nothing,” he tweeted.
About 20 minutes later, an internal memo to staffers from Maven chief executive officer James Heckman started circulating on the social media site, stating that he wanted to address the termination, which will “no doubt be a source of some one-sided punditry in the days to come.”
“This person made more than $350,000 last year to infrequently write stories that generated little meaningful viewership or revenue. Yet he trumpeted that he thought it shameful to be asked to participate in helping his fellow workers,” he said. “To complain about a personal pay reduction when 31 others have just lost their jobs is incomprehensible in light of the sacrifices others made to help limit layoffs and maintain viable salaries for our

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