Sellout Crowd

[toaster]

The new sports site that Tramel adn Jenni Carlson left the Oklahoman for is live now.
Yeah, no paywalls!

https://selloutcrowd.com/

[Pete]

I talked to the main guy at Sellout Crowd, Mike Koehler, a former Oklahoman employee.

He said SC helped each writer set up their own website, Youtube channel, and brand -- all of those belong to the writers/broadcasters.

The Sellout Crown site is basically an aggregator for all of them, and each gets a share of the advertising the site generates.


Interestingly, I find myself reading Tramel a lot less since he made this move. And I'm not really that interested in the rest.

[catcherinthewry]

Is Sellout Crowd eventually going to be a subscription site?

[Pete]

Is Sellout Crowd eventually going to be a subscription site?

I don't think so.

[okatty]

I really like a lot of their writers in addition to Berry T. Guerin Emig for example is very good IMO.

[Pete]

I'm starting to warm up to Sellout Crowd.

It seems Berry Tramel is writing more than he was before, and he just had a great podcast with Dusty Dvoracek.

Tramel is the one sportswriter in this state who seems to really do a lot of research and often uses that for perspective. To me, that sets him way apart from everyone else.


I hope all these writers are making money, especially since most of them were laid off or underappreciated (I remember when they forced Tramel and others into unpaid furlows) by the state's two biggest newspapers.

[catcherinthewry]

I'm starting to warm up to Sellout Crowd.

It seems Berry Tramel is writing more than he was before, and he just had a great podcast with Dusty Dvoracek.

Tramel is the one sportswriter in this state who seems to really do a lot of research and often uses that for perspective. To me, that sets him way apart from everyone else.


I hope all these writers are making money, especially since most of them were laid off or underappreciated (I remember when they forced Tramel and others into unpaid furlows) by the state's two biggest newspapers.

Berry is a sports writer who is also an historian. That is my favorite sub-genre of sports writers. He is also very accessible and although I don't always agree with him, he has never failed to answer an email I sent him.

[soonermike81]

He is also very accessible and although I don't always agree with him, he has never failed to answer an email I sent him.

Agree 100%. I have had the opportunity to meet Berry on a couple of occasions at various events. The very first time I saw him, I decided to strike up a conversation. We ended up chatting for quite some time. A year later or so, I saw him again and he remembered me. We chatted again for a bit even though there were plenty more important people at this particular function. Just an overall good guy and a very good writer.

[Pete]

I've grown to really like Eli Lederman, who was the OU beat writer (served the same role for OSU for a year previously) for the Tulsa World who left on his own accord to join Sellout Crowd.

He's a sharp, young dude who is originally from New York state and went to a real journalism school (Mizzou).

Already very good at what he does and he's still in his 20s.

[Thunderbolt]

I've enjoyed the content so far, both written on the site and Berry Tramel's podcast. He has used his network to bring in some great guests.

[SEMIweather]

I have seen at least two people (Todd Lisenbee and Eli Lederman) tweet that today is their last day at Sellout Crowd. I am wondering if this means the entire site isn’t long for this world.

[Pete]

I have seen at least two people (Todd Lisenbee and Eli Lederman) tweet that today is their last day at Sellout Crowd. I am wondering if this means the entire site isn’t long for this world.

I think Eli Lederman is really good and the best on that site.

I talked at length to the founder and basically it's a bunch of Oklahoma legacy media people trying to create their own digital brand, and SellOut is the umbrella with tools to make that happen, then serves as an aggregator.

It's all unproven and may be an easy way to start your own channel, but I'll have to talk to people behind the scenes to see what kind of revenue is being created.

[BoulderSooner]

I have seen at least two people (Todd Lisenbee and Eli Lederman) tweet that today is their last day at Sellout Crowd. I am wondering if this means the entire site isn’t long for this world.

add Brett Dawson to this list

[BoulderSooner]

add Brett Dawson to this list

and the hutchens twins

and emig ..

[Pete]

Several of them saying they were 'laid off'.

Something strange going on here.

[Dob Hooligan]

I recall hearing somewhere it was primarily funded by Bob Stoops and Toby Keith.

[gopokes88]

Yeah you have to wonder if Toby Keith's passing is a factor.

[Pete]

This does not sound good:

Todd Lisenbee
@ToddOnSports

Someday I will tell the (unedited) story of everything that happened at Sellout Crowd and how nearly all of what I was promised never came to fruition. I took a chance and it didn't work out, and I can rest easy knowing that I did the best I could.

I appreciate all the support from all of you. It would've been nice to have that support from the behind the scenes leadership at Sellout.

[okatty]

Guerin Emig did several posts following this one below. Definitely sounds bad.
@GuerinEmig
Sellout Crowd unraveled today, and the only thing worth understanding right now is decent people suffered as a result. (more ahead)

[Stinger_1066]

They let go of 7 of their "content creators" yesterday.

Tweet from Berry Tramel: https://twitter.com/BerryTramel/stat...55290736447931

Tough day at Sellout Crowd. We said goodbye to a bunch of great colleagues. We had big plans when we launched, now we have to thin down, but getting to work with Guerin Emig, the Hutchens twins, Eli Lederman and Todd Lisenbee was a tremendous experience...

[Urbanized]

I have no insight here but I’ll suspect Toby Keith was consistently writing ongoing checks to get it up and running, and now those checks are no longer coming. The timing is too coincidental. It sounds like this project was a bit of a labor of love for him.

[Pete]

After cutting 7 of 12 content creators, the 5 left are:

Berry Tramel
Jenni Carlson
Bob Stoops
Scott Verplank
Sam Mayes


And really, the only two that generate consistent content and coverage are Tramel and Carlson.

[Dob Hooligan]

Kinda looks like the first Monday in March was the deadline to "pay to play". Guessing Stoops and Verplank could buy in, and Carlson and Tramel generate enough revenue. Not sure about Sam Mayes.

[gopokes88]

Yeah of all that got cut....Mayes stays?

[Pete]

Scott Verplank was a neighbor of my good friend and he has almost no personality, something evident on his podcast.

And I love Bob Stoops but he's not very good at this either.

It's really down to Berry and Jenni and it's hard to believe the two of them could carry an entire business.