ESPN will eighty-six FiveThirtyEight, the statistics-driven news-and-analysis site led by Nate Silver. But the news outlet will go back to square one at ABC News.
In an unusual transfer of corporate assets, Walt Disney’s ABC News said it would acquire Silver’s much-scrutinized operation from sibling ESPN. Financial terms were not disclosed. FiveThirtyEight is expected to continue providing “data-driven sports coverage” that can be utilized by ESPN.
Silver and the FiveThirtyEight staff will become a part of the news division, and Silver and other FiveThirtyEight reporters will appear regularly across ABC News
“With political news front and center every day and the 2018 midterms on the horizon, Nate Silver and his brilliant team truly enhance what we can offer our audience,” said James Goldston, president of ABC News, in a statement.
ABC will serve as the latest perch for analysis from Silver and his team, which has caught national interest since the site’s 2008 genesis as a place for polling aggregation. Since that time, FiveThirtyEight has stretched to examine sports, economics and politics. In 2010, Silver moved the FiveThirtyEight blog to The New York Times, but ended up leaving for ESPN three years later, FiveThirtyEight gained national renown for its predictions of outcomes for primaries and elections, but ran into headwinds in 2016, when it gave overwhelming odds for victory to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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