Memphis Grizzlies’ Jason Wexler explains Grind City Media’s purpose

Since Grind City Media, an in-house media company owned by the Memphis Grizzlies, was announced, there’s been a solid mix of excitement and concern from fans and media alike. I called up the Memphis Grizzlies’ President of Business Operations, Jason Wexler, to discuss what Grind City Media’s purpose and goals are.

When the Memphis Grizzlies announced the creation of their in-house digital media outlet, Grind City Media, it came across as something worth being excited about. Michael Wallace, a renowned NBA reporter with previous experience at ESPN and several large print media outlets, described an unfortunate run-in with Zach Randolph’s elbow to open the announcement before diving into why he was leaving ESPN to join what’s essentially a start-up media outlet.

Exciting stuff as it is, right?

Then came the announcements that Grind City Media had added former 92.9 FM Memphis radio host Chris Vernon, SLAM Magazine’s Alexis Morgan and others to create an all-star roster as far as creative talent is concerned.

Concern over in-house media

However, not everyone was excited about Grind City Media’s entrance onto the Memphis media turf. Commercial Appeal columnist Chris Herrington tweeted: “What would ‘Grind City Media’ have said about the Thabeet pick?” and “At least (owner) Rober Pera will talk to ‘media’ now.”

Herrington wasn’t alone, as some fans on /r/MemphisGrizzlies echoed those concerns.

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Vernon, never a shy voice, shot back on Twitter to Herrington and other critics:

Neither Herrington or Vernon are in the wrong. Wallace’s announcement was vague, and it’s true that some in-house media outlets are pushing out traditional media.

The News & Observer’s former Duke University athletics beat writer, Laura Keeley, cited that in an interview on raleighco.com when explaining her decision to leave journalism to attend law school at Columbia:

"“They have a huge in-house media operation at this point and they look at us as competition, so it makes it difficult,” Keeley said. “You do need a certain amount of access and cooperation from the (teams) you cover to tell the kind of great, awesome, real stories that I and other journalists want to tell. The landscape to do that is changing and it’s changing very rapidly, so there’s just kind of a lot that went into it and I just ultimately decided that, for me, to make a personal choice to try something else.”"

So, what actually is Grind City Media?

Rather than diving into a hot take on in-house media, I did what Vernon suggested via Twitter and gave Jason Wexler, the Memphis Grizzlies’ President of Business Operations, a call to learn more about what Grind City Media really is.

Wexler admitted that the Grizzlies had been “kicking around a while” with the idea, but seized the opportunity when Wallace came on board and Vernon became a media free agent.

“We had kind of laid out framework of what we wanted to do and trying to obtain talent was a big part of that and then ‘Bam,’ we just wildly exceeded our initial expectations,” Wexler said. 

He described Wallace as being an “A-lister off the bat,” and added that Vernon’s “situation sort of fell on our laps, and we were able to take advantage of that and bolstered our roster.”

Despite being under the Grizzlies’ umbrella, Grind City Media’s content is going to range from college football all the way to lifestyle and entertainment.

Wexler said the long-term goal “is to become the dominant sports and entertainment voice in the digital realm, not just for the city, but the region.”

He added: “Being in a smaller media market, there’s not a lot of really big media companies that have huge audiences … So we see ourselves as a home, from a digital content perspective, as more than just Grizzlies stuff.” 

When asked if the goal is to attract more than just Grizzlies fans, Wexler responded, “Absolutely, that’s the goal.”

Alexis Morgan will head the entertainment and lifestyle coverage, which Wexler said may partially include plugging events being hosted by the FedEx Forum. Vernon will handle college football and NFL, as well as any other topics he deems fit.

Censorship City Media? Unlikely.

Wexler claimed Vernon, or anyone else on the staff, will have close to no filter when doing work for Grind City Media.

“The reality is, if you try and make (Grind City Media) a PR arm of the Grizzlies, it’s not going to be authentic and people aren’t going to tune in,” he said. “The audience demands great content and great content is allowing such great talent to do what they see fit.

“If we’re in the middle of a three-game losing streak, we’re not going to sit there and say ‘Hey, write a positive article,’ because that won’t ring true. People will call ‘B.S.’ and won’t read it going forward,”  Wexler added. 

Wexler noted that an outspoken personality like Vernon is going to speak his mind—the positives and negatives—and decided there was no good reason to mark that has a strike against him. 

“A guy like Chris, he’s going to work for somebody,” he said. “When he’s criticizing us, either somebody else is going to get that advertising revenue or we can get that advertising revenue for that, right?

“We have pretty thick skin here,” Wexler added. 

Relationship with outside media

Outside media such as the Commercial Appeal, the Memphis Flyer and even BealeStreetBears.com, should be unaffected by Grind City Media’s presence. After all, it doesn’t seem like Grind City Media’s purpose is to monopolize Memphis Grizzlies coverage like many assumed.

“(Outside media) have the same access and ability to cover as they’ve always had, I don’t see that being any different,” Wexler said. “If they choose to cover us differently in reaction to Grind City Media, then there’s not a lot we can do about that either.”

Where from here?

Grind City Media’s short-term goal is to pump out quality content on a consistent basis while also finding an efficient delivery system to do so. Wexler speculated that changes to the Memphis Grizzlies’ mobile application could be a way of doing that. However, there are still many more changes on the horizon.

“We’re in start up mode and adjusting on the fly,” Wexler said. 

Whether the vision catches on and takes off yet still to be seen, but the talent is there.

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