ESPN Lures Data Guru Silver

ESPN, with an assist from sister unit ABC News, has lured stat guru, blogger and journalist Nate Silver from the New York Times.

Silver, who pens the FiveThirtyEight blog and draws a huge following a NYTimes.com, will serve as editor-in-chief of the FiveThirtyEight site at ESPN with a team of writers and contributors, ESPN said, in the vein of the sports networks Bill Simmons and his long-form sportswriting site Grantland.com.

The former managing partner of baseball news and analysis site Baseball Prospectus will remain based in New York City with Bristol, Conn.-based ESPN.

ESPN president John Skipper said Silver's coverage will expand beyond sports to include politics and other topics. "Our expectation is he will determine the content of that site," he said. "Politics remains at the core of what he does, so politics is going to be important there. …But I think that the range of topics will be quite wide, again will be determined exactly by Nate."

Silver's three-year pact with the Times expires at the end of August.

"Obviously I have a background in sports, and that would be a big focus here, but it’s not just going to be a politics site or a sports site," said Silver. "There’s lots of potential in business and economics and weather and health and education and technology and culture."

Skipper said Silver would likely be involved with ABC News during election cycles and could possibly have a role with ABC's coverage of the Oscars. Silver's accurate forecast of President Obama's re-election in the face of established polls showing a dead heat significantly raised his profile last year.

New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan praised Silver and his work in a piece Monday, but noted that Silver's work rankled some political journalists in the newsroom.  "I don't think Nate Silver ever really fit into the Times culture and I think he was aware of that. He was, in a word, disruptive," wrote Sullivan.

Silver dismissed talk of a poor "cultural" fit with the Times in an ESPN conference call July 22. "Look, I’m interested in running a website and building out a business here and having my opinion to weigh in on different topics," he said. "I'm not interested in who I’m getting a beer with. I have plenty of people in my social circles for that.  So these cultural issues I think are getting a little more play than is appropriate."