It's Official: Nate Silver Leaves 'New York Times' for ESPN

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By Sam Laird2013-07-22 19:44:05 UTC

Data whiz and nerd demigod Nate Silver has left The New York Times for sports media giant ESPN.

Silver and ESPN officially announced the new pairing on Monday afternoon via Twitter and a post to ESPN's media site. In a twist, however, New York Times reporter Brian Stelter actually first reported the move on Friday, citing "ESPN employees with direct knowledge of his plans."

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Silver's role with ESPN, however, will be a bit different — and perhaps more interesting — than you might guess.

He'll expand his FiveThirtyEight.com site to include sports data analysis and more, returning it to its original URL from fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com, the address it used while with the Times. Along with sports data, Silver will continue to analyze political elections as well as other topics including science, technology and economics.

He'll serve as editor-in-chief of the site, but build out a team of "journalists, editors, analysts and contributors in the coming months," according to ESPN. In a series of Monday afternoon tweets, Silver compared the arrangement to ESPN's Grantland.com, which covers sports and pop culture under the leadership of star columnist Bill Simmons:

Silver's move from the Times to ESPN may come as a bit of a surprise to folks who've only become familiar with him more recently — particularly during his flawless prediction performance ahead of the 2012 presidential election. But the stats savant actually got his start in sports, first entering the public eye in the early 2000s while providing advanced data analysis for pro baseball teams. Sports have proved tougher to predict than elections, however, as Silver's Super Bowl prognostications prove.

While the Times and ESPN waged a negotiation war over his services, the chance to go back to sports while still covering politics and growing the FiveThirtyEight brand to other areas as well was Silver's top priority, according to a behind-the-scenes Politico report on his change of scenery.

FiveThirtyEight's maturation over the coming months should be fascinating to track for sports fans, political wonks and nerds of all stripes.

Is Silver's move to ESPN a smart call or is he making a mistake? Give us your take in the comments.

Amy E. Price/Getty Images for SXSW

Topics: Business, ESPN, Media, nate silver, Sports