Josh Krulewitz

Vice President, Communicationsjksports

I’ve been at ESPN since 1990 and to the company’s credit, every year has been dramatically different. I’m a proud representative of thousands of ESPNers who bring great passion, personality and a commitment to create distinctive content for sports fans each and every day. I’ve always been a big sports fan and ESPN is the ultimate sports hangout. From a business standpoint, my main job is to serve the ever-changing needs of the media by actively representing the company with honesty, integrity and a respectful, positive attitude. I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on so many great initiatives, including the creation/launch of the X Games, the award-winning SportsCentury project, the BCS Championship, the legendary Dick Vitale and The V Foundation for Cancer Research. I was especially honored to be recognized, along with colleague Mike Soltys, with the Katha Quinn Award, given by the United States Basketball Writers’ Association for outstanding media service (http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2008/quinn080313.html). My Twitter handle is jksports (a tribute to my Dad) if you’d like to follow my updates, including “Stephen Wright Quote Friday” tweets. As they said in Airplane, “Good luck. We’re all counting on you.” Thanks for visiting. JK Sports

Recent Posts

posted by on May 29, 2013 12:00 PM

Dick Vitale’s 8th Gala puts event’s contribution to The V Foundation at more than $10 million

It’s almost 5 p.m. on Friday, May 17 and not surprisingly, Dick Vitale is a bundle of energy a few hours before his event starts.

As he arrives at the Sarasota, Fla. site of the 8th annual Dick Vitale Gala to support The V Foundation for Cancer Research, he’s overwhelmed with anticipation, pride and nerves. The Gala, which he and his wife, Lorraine, launched as a small gathering at their house less than a decade ago, has grown into a hotel ballroom-filling, celebrity-laden, night of inspiration and philanthropy. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on April 8, 2013 9:11 AM

Tweetback: Discussion is a key SportsCenter ingredient; Women’s title game set; Vitale call first Final Four; Rutgers story unfolds

SportsCenter’s in-depth highlights, next-level stats and investigative reports and features have been pillars of the program’s enduring success. Yet during the biggest news stories, engaging discussion and analysis is often what sets ESPN’s flagship show apart.

“We always strive to have smart discussions and serve the fans with deeper perspective,” said Senior Coordinating Producer Michael Shiffman. continue reading…

Filed in: Weekend Tweetback

posted by on February 28, 2013 12:09 PM

Champion’s Salute: ESPN’s Rosa Gatti

ESPN’s Senior Vice President, Communications Counsel and Corporate Outreach Rosa Gatti is retiring today from the company she joined 33 years ago (within its first year of launch) and significantly helped build in her many important roles since.

Gatti, a leading voice at ESPN and throughout the industry on matters of PR, corporate outreach, diversity and beyond, was recently selected as one of Sports Business Journal’s Champions: Pioneers & Innovators.

In the feature story recognizing Gatti’s historic career, SBJ reporter John Ourand spoke to multiple former ESPN presidents as well as ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen about her tremendous impact. Among the comments was this one from ESPN Executive Chairman George Bodenheimer, which aptly summarizes his fellow V Foundation Board Member, Gatti: “She does so much to help other people without drawing attention to herself.”

Read the full SBJ story about Gatti’s career.

Filed in: Announcements

posted by on January 11, 2013 12:58 PM

ESPN’s Talent Department shows the knack for spotting, training and keeping talent

Multiple ESPN talent that.(Photos courtesy of ESPN Images)

A few of the ESPN personalities who renewed and/or signed contracts in 2012. (ESPN Images)

Below is a small sampling of the hundreds of ESPN contract renewals and/or new signings in 2012

Skip Bayless
Stephania Bell
Chris Berman
Allen Bestwick
Chris Broussard
Hubie Brown
Ramona Bruland
John Buccigross
Cari Champion
John Clayton
Lee Corso
Colin Cowherd
Heather Cox
Mike Ditka
Colleen Dominguez
Cliff Drysdale
Mary Jo Fernandez
Pedro Gomez
Doug Glanville
Israel Gutierrez
LZ Granderson
Seth Greenberg
Adrian Healey
Ron Jaworski
Mark Jones
Danny Kanell
Michael Kay
Michael Kim
Mel Kiper Jr.
John Kruk
Steve Levy
Bob Ley
Joe Lunardi
Eric Mangini
Sean McDonough
Patrick McEnroe
Chris McKendry
Beth Mowins
Brent Musburger
Kelly Naqi
Jesse Palmer
Bruce Pearl
David Pollack
Samantha Ponder
Karl Ravech
Darren Rovell
Holly Rowe
Jalen Rose
Adam Schefter
Jon Sciambi
Curt Schilling
Stuart Scott
Dan Shulman
Marty Smith
Stephen A. Smith
Curtis Strange
Joe Tessitore
Mike Tirico
Wright Thompson
Jeff Van Gundy
Scott Van Pelt
Pam Ward
Bram Weinstein
Ed Werder
Marcellus Wiley

FrontRowDesign_Final

ESPN’s Talent Department, born in 2008, was created to recruit, manage, coach and retain the more than 1,000 commentators the company employs — from TV/radio personnel to digital/print reporters to international staff.

“The realization was that production folks who had worked closest with commentators were understandably focused on producing content,” said Laurie Orlando, Senior Vice President, Talent Planning and Development, who returned to ESPN in ’08 to help start the department.

The talent office has become an important resource and differentiation point for ESPN.

“We have a year-round planning and development strategy, in collaboration with day-to-day production staff and management,” Orlando said. “For each sport, we meet to talk about talent a week or two after a season ends or at a set time for SportsCenter anchors, reporters or radio hosts.

“At those points, we’ll review the season, discuss who we’d like to renew, whose skills we can develop through training [ESPN coaching resources include interviewing, vocal quality, presence/performance] and who from the outside may be available now or in the future to make us better,” she said.

Contract planning also takes into consideration the length of ESPN’s programming rights deals. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on November 21, 2012 1:06 PM

Front & Center: Burke Magnus on
12-year ESPN deal for new college football playoff games, championship

In January 2012, ESPN was in New Orleans for the telecast of the Allstate BCS National Championship between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers.
(Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

Click HERE to listen or visit iTunes to download the podcast and be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Front & Center podcast. Also, make sure to check out the all new ESPN Radio app, now available for the iPad.

ESPN’s Burke Magnus

ESPN Senior Vice President, College Sports Programming Burke Magnus played an integral role in ESPN’s latest agreement — a 12-year deal for the new college football playoff games. The deal, along with the new four-team playoff format, goes into effect after the 2014 regular season.

ESPN will present the national championship and semifinals each year plus the various related bowls on an annual basis across many ESPN entities. Magnus was also part of the ESPN negotiating team that had previously secured 12-year agreements for the Rose, Sugar and Orange Bowls and the timing for each (beginning after 2014 regular season) coincides with today’s agreement.

As a result, ESPN has secured rights to all games involved in the new playoff system. In today’s Front & Center podcast, Magnus spoke about how everything came together, the significance of the agreement for fans and what it will mean in the future.

Filed in: Announcements

posted by on September 5, 2012 12:00 PM

SportsCenter’s executive producer, Mark Gross, discusses SC FAQs

SportsCenter Set (Rich Arden/ESPN)

Editor’s Note: As SportsCenter approaches its 50,000th episode (expected to be Thursday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. ET), Front Row will present content related to the show and the milestone.

ESPN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer Mark Gross joined ESPN in 1988 and has played an integral role in the growth of SportsCenter since. Currently, he oversees the strategic direction for SportsCenter (among other assignments) and he recently addressed some of the most common SportsCenter-related topics and questions with Front Row.

On the SportsCenter mission and definition:
SportsCenter is a sports news and information program that serves sports fans through reporting, highlights and context. It shows the most interesting stories and highlights for the biggest audience and when you get through everything else, the most important thing SportsCenter does is document the day and night in sports just like a game telecast would document a game.

On potentially excessive coverage of select players or teams:
We cover the stories that resonate with the widest number of people. That’s what drives our editorial decisions every single day. We can’t do everything for everybody all at the same time, yet we do try to broaden our coverage when we can to cover teams that may have relatively smaller followings. Ultimately, there is no mistaking what our research and ratings tell us about what we cover. While we are aware of the pockets of feedback about coverage fatigue relative to certain players or teams, those same teams and players have wide appeal.

Mark Gross

On repetition of stories throughout multiple shows:
When people comment about the SportsCenter repetition, I completely understand that argument, especially since I watch more SportsCenter than most. What you have to remember though is that the average viewer is watching SportsCenter for limited portions at a time. So what may seem like repetition to those who watch it all, to most it’s primarily new material. Another factor is given our role as a 24-hour sports news source, we are defined in many ways by big sports stories. Sports fans rely on us in those situations more than any other time. It’s similar to how news networks cover election campaigns around the clock or how viewers turn to the Weather Channel for comprehensive coverage of a hurricane. Viewers expect wall-to-wall coverage from every angle; that’s why they tune in, and that’s what networks deliver.

On SportsCenter covering leagues/players/teams that ESPN, Inc. has a business relationship with: continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on September 4, 2012 12:21 PM

Learn more about SportsCenter history with timeline, trivia

Editor’s Note: As SportsCenter approaches its 50,000th episode (expected to be Thursday, Sept. 13), Front Row will present content related to the show and the milestone. Today, a timeline of important dates in SportsCenter’s history and facts you may not know.

SportsCenter Timeline

Sept. 7, 1979 — ESPN launches and the first program aired is the flagship show, SportsCenter, hosted by George Grande and Lee Leonard.

Feb. 6, 1981 — SportsCenter anchor Rhonda Glenn joins ESPN and becomes first full-time woman sportscaster for a national TV network.

Jan. 1982 — SportsCenter provides on-site reports from the Super Bowl for the first time.

Dec. 2, 1988 — The 10,000th episode of SportsCenter airs.

Oct. 10, 1995 — This is SportsCenter, the irreverent, behind-the-scenes, on-air promotional campaign, begins. Roger Clemens, Grant Hill and Micheal Andretti were among the first athletes to visit Bristol to participate in the critically acclaimed campaign.

May 17, 1998 — The 20,000th episode of SportsCenter airs.

Jan. 2000 — The first international edition of SportsCenter, reaching 2.4 million homes in Brazil, launches in Portuguese.

Aug. 25, 2002 — The 25,000th episode of SportsCenter airs. continue reading…

Filed in: ESPN History

posted by on August 24, 2012 3:09 PM

Graves to call former NL All-Star teammate Clemens’ comeback game

Danny Graves pitched in the Major Leagues for 11 seasons (1996-2006) with the Indians, Reds and Mets.

The two-time All-Star was part of the 2004 National League squad that also featured then-Astros pitcher Roger Clemens.

Now, in just his second assignment as an analyst for ESPN (he had worked some Little League games in recent weeks), Graves will call Saturday night’s Atlantic League matchup between Clemens’ Sugar Land (Texas) Skeeters team and the Bridgeport (Conn.) Bluefish, live on ESPN3, ESPN Classic, SportsCenter and other ESPN outlets.

Graves is no stranger to attempted comebacks, as he tried on multiple occasions to continue his professional baseball career (which ultimately ended in 2009 after Spring Training with the Astros). He also pitched in this very Atlantic League in 2007 for the Long Island (N.Y.) Ducks.

Front Row caught up with Graves as he prepares for the telecast, which also will feature Longhorn Network play-by-play commentator Kevin Dunn.

As a former player in the Atlantic League, what should viewers expect in terms of quality of play?
There were a ton of former Big Leaguers when I was there in 2007. On my team alone, we had Carl Everett, Edgardo Alfonzo and Jose Offerman. It was a very competitive league and I believe it still is today because there are guys that get the opportunities to sign with Major League organizations. All the stadiums in the Atlantic League are fairly new and the crowds come partly because they can see former Major Leaguers. In terms of the quality of hitters that Clemens will face, remember that anyone who has a bat in their hands is dangerous — they can accidentally get a hit.

What should fans expect from Rogers Clemens? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, Top Stories

posted by on August 23, 2012 2:11 PM

Beyond countdown to 50K episodes: Other branches of SportsCenter family

SportsCenter is expected to reach the 50,000 show milestone on Thursday, Sept.13.

ESPN’s flagship program, the first-ever on the network, is the most televised program in the history of the medium.

Over the years, the show’s success has led to the development of additional SportsCenter content beyond the traditional episodes.

From ESPN International to ESPN Radio to ESPN’s digital offerings, as the slide show above illustrates, SportsCenter has found a home in new places to reach fans. So even though those daily SportsCenter offerings don’t count toward the 50,000 episode number, they play a significant role in the lives of sports fans.

Check back with ESPN Front Row in the coming days for additional updates related to the 50,000th SportsCenter.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on August 15, 2012 2:47 PM

SportsCenter to air 50,000th episode in September; revisit Episode No. 1

SportsCenter was the first program on ESPN the night the network launched on Sept. 7, 1979.

This week, original anchor George Grande and ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen reunited in the very studio where the first show originated to look ahead to another milestone: SportsCenter’s 50,000 episode, which will air next month.

The two key figures in that milestone Episode No. 1 reflected upon the show’s impact and how when Grande introduced viewers to the unprecedented 24-hour sports network on the debut episode of its flagship show, he spoke of the mission to serve sports fans.

When Grande relayed the mission in that first show, he said, “If it takes an interview, we’ll do it. If it takes play-by-play, we’ll do it. If it takes commentary, we’ll do that, too. That’s the way we will function from the ESPN SportsCenter.”

The program has clearly evolved since then. Instead of a few shows each evening, SportsCenter has expanded to daytime. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes