ESPN president gets a contract extension weeks before mass layoffs at his network

The Big Lead

John Skipper, who has led ESPN since 2012, will continue leading the sports network as it copes with lost revenue due to cord-cutting through 2021. As Richard Deitsch points out, “Deal was done awhile ago, I'm told, so ESPN now has the rough optics of public seeing its top exec re-sign so close to post-Thanksgiving layoffs of more than 100 staffers.”