• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 8, 2024

Journalists are used to hearing about newsrooms being shuttered, in many cases their own. Here’s bad news about a different channel: SB Nation Podcast Network has dropped several sports podcasts, although it does not appear to be shutting down, as several sources claimed it was. 

“SB Nation – the preeminent local sports blogging network owned by Vox Media – is shutting down its local sports podcasts,” wrote Kyle Scott Laskowski on X last Friday. 

“We found out today that the Blogging The Boys podcast network is no more,” added the Dallas Cowboys site Blogging the Boys on X. “SB Nation is ending their podcast program in general.”

Blogging The Boys continued, “It is impossible to say how saddening this is. We have so many great shows and podcasters.”

Vox said in a statement that SB Nation was continuing. 

“As we focus on scaling SB Nation and strengthening engagement with our network of 200 communities, we need to be disciplined about where we see opportunity,” a Vox spokesperson said, according to Inside Radio 

The spokesperson added, “As a result, we made the difficult decision to end 12 team community audio podcasts, mostly covering individual teams, resulting in a small number of role eliminations at SB Nation and the end of our partnership with a number of contractors. Podcasting remains a core part of Vox Media’s business and SB Nation will continue to explore and invest in opportunities in the space.”

Vox itself is rated as a top podcast producer. It is devoted to having the “most influential show across every consumer passion point: music, politics, culture and sports,” said Lillian Xu, Executive Director, Audio Business, Vox Media, during the Publishers Insider Summit in March. 

The SB Nation web page still says, “We are the fastest-growing sports media brand with over 300 fan-centric team communities, including five of the most popular contact sports media brands.”

Many of the affected brands said they would continue to post content online, and some said they would seek podcast support elsewhere. 

Crossing Broad reported that these podcasts were among those no longer being supported: 

• BGN Radio
• Babes on Broad
• On the Shane Page
• NFC East Mixtape
• Eye on the Enemy
• BGN Draft
• Above the Nest
• That’s Ball Folks