Dianna Russini leaving ESPN to join The Athletic

Dianna Russini is joining The Athletic after spending the past eight years covering the NFL for ESPN.

The New York Post broke the story, Friday. The Athletic hired her to be its main NFL reporter. She’ll write as well as appear on the site’s video platforms and podcasts.

The Post said that ESPN tried to keep Russini. But The Athletic won her services.

The Athletic started out as a digital site with beat writers covering the major teams in college football as well as the main sports leagues like the NFL, NBA and MLB. The New York Times purchased The Athletic in January 2022.

Russini hasn’t publicly confirmed her new job. But she did tweet video of everyone dancing on set of ESPN’s Get Up from Thursday morning.

We were a little too serious today. ⁦@GetUpESPN⁩ pic.twitter.com/iH6kNqw751

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) August 10, 2023

The site has since restructured as it laid off 20 employees earlier this summer. The cuts mainly were to beats covering MLB and NHL.

“We’ve reorganized The Athletic’s newsroom to ensure we’re structured to enact our strategy to cover the most compelling stories that matter to fans across all the teams in a given league daily,” a New York Times spokesperson said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “To achieve this, we’re enhancing how we combine the local and national expertise that’s always set our journalism apart.”

The New York Times, subsequently, decided to ditch its award-winning sports department, with The Athletic taking over the coverage.

Dianna Russini was one of ESPN’s main NFL voices. And ESPN”s NFL coverage definitely is changing. Like The Athletic, ESPN laid off at least 20 employees earlier this summer. The network let go of Suzy Kolber, who was host of Monday Night Countdown, as well as panelists Steve Young and Keyshawn Johnson.