ESPN's $1M anchor Jemele Hill to join site run by Washington Post vets
Jemele Hill, who earned a reported salary of $1 million as a host of ESPN’s flagship show “SportsCenter,” is said to be joining The Undefeated, an ESPN website based in the Washington, D.C., area that covers the intersection of sports and race.
Many of her new co-workers at The Undefeated are former journalists at The Washington Post, including editor-in-chief Kevin Merida, deputy editor Steve Reiss and senior writer Mike Wise. Assuming that Hill holds on to her ESPN salary, she will be earning a lot more than her new colleagues are used to making. A typical Washington Post reporter makes about $85,000 per year, according to a Glassdoor survey of nine salaries.
In addition to her salary of $1 million, she has a net worth of $4 million, according to Salary and Networth. She is in the first year of a four-year deal, the Hollywood Reporter said Friday.
Several ESPN insiders told Fox News that the move was Hill’s choice, but sports talk radio host Clay Travis tweeted that she was “booted” due to “collapsing ratings.” ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), declined to comment.
"I approached (ESPN Executive Vice President, Content) Connor Schell recently and asked if they would consider re-thinking my role. And as has been the case throughout my 11 years at this company, ESPN graciously worked with me to determine the best way for me to continue to do meaningful work," Hill said in a statement.
After calling President Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter last year, ESPN initially declined to punish Hill. The network sidelined her for two weeks in October when she called on fans to boycott the Dallas Cowboys’ advertisers after owner Jerry Jones told players they would be benched if they did not stand up during the national anthem.
On Thursday, Hill mocked the new XFL for declaring that the league will be free of political issues but will also force players to stand for the National Anthem. Her message was retweeted by the official account of her new home, The Undefeated.