Apr 17, 2018 - Politics & Policy

FiveThirtyEight jumps to ABC News

Sara Fischer

Nate Silver. Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for AWXII

FiveThirtyEight, the popular politics and news blog launched by statistics guru Nate Silver in 2010, is moving from Disney-owned ESPN to Disney-owned ABC News, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Why it matters: Transitioning the property to its sister network that's more news and politics focused, is a better fit for website than ESPN. President of ABC News James Goldston tells the Wall Street Journal that FiveThirtyEight is part of ABC News’ plans to enhance its political reporting ahead of the midterm elections.

The details: ABC will take on all of FiveThirtyEight's staff, with the exception of a few layoffs, per WSJ. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reports over the past few months have suggested that ESPN was exploring several potential new owners for the blog, as it undergoes major digital changes of its own.

What they're saying: FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver tweeted that he is excited to work with ABC and "combine our strengths with theirs as we tackle the 2018 and 2020 elections and other news stories."

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FiveThirtyEight jumps to ABC News

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