Good piece, the OP sums up why even as analytics show that a diminishing number of users visit news site homepages, I still will type in the URLs to domains such as Grantland, NYT, and the New Yorker...and only ever visit places like BuzzFeed and Vox through Twitter or HN: the sites in the former category still have front pages in which the majority of content is original...the sites in the latter, you have to <i>work</i> to get to the good stuff.<p>I liked reading the linked-to Deadspin piece about Simmons and Grantland [1], which contains a lot of detail about the site's size and cost (linking to a NYT report [2] of Simmons earning $5M)...also, I didn't know Simmons conceived of "30 for 30"...that alone explains his worth to me (in terms of ESPN video content).<p>[1] <a href="http://deadspin.com/how-to-employ-bill-simmons-1703224603" rel="nofollow">http://deadspin.com/how-to-employ-bill-simmons-1703224603</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/sports/bill-simmonss-return-sets-intrigue-in-motion-at-espn.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/sports/bill-simmonss-retur...</a>