Meadowlark Media has found its next CEO, and it’s a familiar face from the sports-centric media company founded by former ESPN personality Dan Le Batard and former ESPN president John Skipper.
The company announces that Bimal Kapadia will become its new CEO, succeeding Skipper, who left the company earlier this year. Kapadia was Meadowlark’s COO since its launch, managed the company’s relationship with Draftkings and negotiated the deal for Pablo Torre’s show with The Athletic, among other deals.
“Bimal has the experience, the care and, most importantly, the vision to make our strange spaceship a new type of media machine as turbulence shakes the rest of the industry and the country,” Le Batard said. The Hollywood Reporter. “He and we want to set a fiercely independent journalistic standard, both from another era and ahead of its time. The modern age demands different thinkers. Meadowlark will be a progressive leader because Bimal ensures that we are guided and governed by one.”
In an interview, Kapadia says that with the Draftkings deal for Le Batard’s show and The Athletic’s deal for Torre’s show, he is focused on using that foundation to create new spinoff shows.
“I’m actually more interested in spin-offs of our shows,” says Kapadia. “How can the ideas we present on Pablo’s show incubate an idea for a scripted or unscripted series? How can a concept that is part of Dan’s network of ideas launch another series?”
“Where we think we have an advantage with Meadowlark is that trust in the national media is fractured,” adds Kapadia. “Knowing that we have two flagship deals in place, a licensing partnership with DraftKings for Dan’s show and a licensing partnership with The New York Times and The Athletic and Pablo’s show, that gives us almost perfect predictability for the next two and a half, three years, four years of our business. That allows us now to focus on how do we grow this network?
In fact, Kapadia believes that the reputation and relationships Le Batard and Torre have built with their audiences will bring credibility and authenticity to the entire project. Torre, for example, has been the subject of numerous investigative scoops, including a story about the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard that made international headlines.
“I think people find comfort and confidence and security in trusted figures that they know. And I think Dan and Pablo are two guys who represent a little bit: if they say something, they know it’s well-researched, it’s backed up, it’s sourced,” Kapadia says. “This isn’t just a shock reaction or a hoax, is it? It’s actually based on something and, as far as possible, with the dearth of journalism, we’re as close to an independent platform as we think we can be without having to sacrifice our journalistic credibility.”
“Dan is one of the best storytellers, thinkers and creatives there is,” he adds. “My job in this role is to take him out of thinking about what needs to happen from this company’s perspective, and get him to focus on creating the best creativity, providing the best vision of what this place could be, and letting me do things, quote unquote. »
