Women have made undeniable progress in the worlds of sports and media in the last 20 years, as B+C Multichannel News has chronicled partly through these annual profiles of female leaders in the televised sports world, Women in the Game. But though steady, progress has been slow, although there was a greater change in attitude and tangible improvements after #MeToo burst into the headlines.
One silver lining in the tragic and destructive pandemic has been the change in the way America goes to work, and there’s hope that this could bring greater progress for women in sports and sports media. “There are women talking sports now on TV and online every day as hosts, analysts, play-by-play announcers and reporters and they’re no longer exceptions,” Jodi Logsdon, VP of news and editorial for CBS Sports, said. “We’ve seen the change behind the scenes too. When I started, women tended to be in certain roles in marketing or operations and not in an editorial or production capacity, but that has changed.”
Roles, Attitudes Changing
Best of all, Logsdon said, there’s been a shift in attitude, so women and people of color are no longer being hired just for show or to meet a quota. “There’s now a recognition of the fact that having those different perspectives and truly hearing them and engaging them is not just the right thing to do but it’s also actually making us better,” she said. “Women and people of color bring different ideas and cover stories in different ways and appeal to broader audiences with stories that reflect them.”
That said, resistance can be tough to break down. Stephanie Medina, director of Fox NFL Sunday, said Fox Sports has brought in another woman director and has a third in training but “an agent told me that until two years ago there were other networks that didn’t even want the names of female directors on their lists of people to see.”
Meredith Battin, VP of content planning and programming for the National Football League, who was often the only woman in the room when she was starting out, said improvements have been slowest to hit at the most senior levels. “The changes over the course of my career have been tremendous,” she said.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight, but things look a lot different today for women in the field than they did 10 years ago,” agreed Karen Brodkin, who is co-head of WME Sports and executive VP of content strategy and development at Endeavor. She said there still needs to be more effort made to get women (and people of color) into the pipeline so that when hiring happens, there are more candidates. “I’m hopeful our agents and executives will look a lot more like our clients moving forward,” she said. “We’re certainly not there yet but we’re creating opportunities.”
Years ago, Battin said, the challenge was just about getting women in the door. Now it’s about finding ways to support working mothers. “The pandemic showed that people don’t have to always be in the office and there can be more flexibility for parents,” she said. While sports-related jobs are often going to require work on nights and weekends, “this is the positive for women that has come out of the pandemic,” Battin said.
Rosalyn Durant, executive VP of programming and acquisitions for ESPN, said leadership needs to “support people for their full selves, to be flexible as leaders to meet people’s needs so they can be successful.”
Kat Harwood, a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s sports-industry practice, said the pandemic produced a seismic change but workplaces are “reaching an inflection point” as companies start to mandate more days back in the office. While it will take time to sort out what works best for companies and employees, she said, there’s no going back to the rigidity of the past — and women will be the beneficiaries of this paradigm shift.
Paying It Forward
She credits the women who came before her for helping break down barriers and push for change, adding that her generation has done the same. “There’s a sense among women in the field of banding together, of providing wrap-around support and pulling through the next group to pay it forward,” Harwood said. “Now we’re getting a multiplier effect for those efforts.”
Added Brodkin, “I hope we’ve left a strong legacy for the women who come up behind us.”
When asked when progress would reach the point of true equality, Durant said: “I don’t know that I’ll ever get to answer that question and say, ‘It’s enough,’ though I hope I do one day. We have to continue focusing on it and intentionality, and acknowledge where there are gaps — then we can make sure women get support and truly get the same opportunities.”
Meredith Battin
VP, Content Planning and Programming, National Football League
KEY STATS: “My role has changed every few years,” Battin said. In recent years, she has overseen a team of more than 40 in portfolio-level planning and investment operations. She’s now helping bring together the content for linear and digital platforms, which is a shift driven by the need to reach more fans. Battin is responsible for everything from YouTube content to podcasts as the NFL strives to reach fans where they are. “We’re planning and programming with all the platforms in mind,” she said. “That’s an exciting shift.”
VARSITY STATUS: Battin started out in the business world at American Express but wanted a job she felt passionate about. So she earned an MBA from UCLA to prepare for a career in the sports world. Battin graduated just as the NFL was launching its digital business and jumped in right away. She has been with the league for nearly 17 years, starting as a product manager for NFL Digital Media and taking on increasing responsibility across new areas since then. Her previous title was VP of business operations and club media.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I’ve had the great fortune to try my hand in all sorts of things in the media space. When I started we had a website and that was it, and now that’s not even the most interesting thing we do: there’s YouTube, podcasts, FAST [channels]. We want to get more content to more people and make things more accessible.
“It’s a lot of work to rethink how we do our planning and how we bring our groups together. We have to figure out different strategies around our events: what content goes where and how to maximize our reach. We’re doing that in a resource-constrained world with more platforms, so you have to be smarter, more efficient, more creative. I like being able to pair what each platform brings to the table from a strategic value and from the fan’s value and put the full picture together. I see things holistically.”
Karen Brodkin
Co-Head of WME Sports and Executive VP of Content Strategy and Development, Endeavor
KEY STATS: Brodkin is, with Josh Pyatt, the co-head of WME Sports, which encompasses the agency’s representation of athletes, broadcasters, coaches and front-office personnel. She also leads business development and strategy for a range of business areas across the Endeavor portfolio, including partnerships with sports leagues, federations, conferences and teams; content licensing; strategy and development; media strategy and consultation; sports naming rights and venue programming, strategy and development; and eSports partnerships and events. “In the throes of the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, while we were working from home, we built a football business, a basketball representation business, a basketball coaching business and a Major League Baseball representation business,” Brodkin said.
VARSITY STATUS: Brodkin started as a corporate attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, then spent five years as an entertainment attorney at two Los Angeles-based entertainment firms where her clients included Garth Brooks, Spike Lee, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I thought I had one of the best jobs in the world at Fox until I got recruited to come here in 2014, leaving legal business affairs behind to come in as a true dealmaker and help on strategy. My skills are in building and nurturing relationships. I’m a good manager of people and good at strategically building out a business.
“I also think a lot about culture. I want the brand of WME Sports to stand for something culturally, and if we have the right culture internally that will resonate externally with clients and signing efforts. I’m not sure if there are any other sports agencies run or co-run by women, and there are no other media advisory businesses featuring two women at the top.”
Rosalyn Durant
Executive VP, Programming and Acquisitions, ESPN
KEY STATS: Durant returned to The Walt Disney Co.-controlled ESPN in March 2023 after three years as senior VP of Disney Springs, Water Parks and ESPN Wide World of Sports. In her new role, she leads programming and media rights deals for all ESPN platforms.
VARSITY STATUS: Prior to her three years in Florida, Durant spent two decades at ESPN, starting as an intern in affiliate sales and marketing in 1998. She signed on full-time in 1999 as a marketing coordinator and rose through the ranks. By 2005, she was senior director for national accounts and the following year she moved into programming as a senior director. Since then she has been VP, programming and acquisitions, managing the network’s relationships with the NBA, Major League Soccer, FIFA and other organizations, as well as VP of college sports programming and acquisitions, overseeing all of ESPN’s college sports relationships, rights acquisitions and programming, and senior VP of ESPN’s College Networks.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I am back. ESPN is home. Even when I was at Walt Disney World, every week I’d talk to someone from ESPN — a friend or someone reaching out for advice or someone else — just to stay connected with the business. So returning here felt like a natural next step.
“I’m back in the department I spent the majority of my time at ESPN in. I know the team here and understand the work that’s in front of us. We need a disciplined approach to acquisitions and content in order to find the right mix that will help
us broaden our reach to fans. It could be men’s or women’s sports, traditional or non-traditional, amateur, college or pro: It’s not one thing but the right mix. We want to round out the portfolio, not get sidetracked by all of the noise around us and focus on what we do well.”
Kat Harwood
Principal, Sports Industry Practice, Deloitte Consulting LLP
KEY STATS: Harwood joined Deloitte’s sports consultancy not long after it began eight years ago. She advises those in the industry on how to maximize value from digital enablement opportunities across all aspects of their operations, from improving the fan experience to generating new revenue streams.
“At first we were building awareness, but now we have strong partnerships and clients, so we are leveraging that and we can get more folks answering our calls,” she said. “We’re also showing them what we are doing outside of sports that has applicability inside sports.”
Harwood’s group does consulting with the Olympics and others but is “really proud of the investment and impact we’ve had on a lot of women’s sports leagues like the NWSL, WNBA and the women’s U.S. soccer team.”
VARSITY STATUS: Harwood has spent her entire career at Deloitte. While tailgating at a football game during college at UCLA, she met an alum who connected her with the company. An internship led to a full-time job, starting as an auditor in the aerospace and defense industry. She then got an MBA from Wharton. “Business school helped me broaden my knowledge across all aspects of running a business, which was important if I wanted to be a consultant,” she said, adding that she purposely studied sports business while getting her graduate degree. “That became the foundation for a totally different career at Deloitte.”
IN HER OWN WORDS: “The experience I’m most proud of is a program we started last year called The Student Athlete Leadership Experience, presented by and in conjunction with Deloitte Foundation. It’s often hard for student-athletes to understand how the skills in their sports translate into the business world and how to get in the door. We’ve doubled the number of participants this year, to eight schools and 50 student-athletes. We help them build a community of like-minded people and Deloitte folks donate their time, giving an introduction to business courses or doing interview prep and other things like that. I got to ideate the concept, pitch it and find the funding. Seeing it come together was one of the most genuinely inspiring things I’ve done.”
Tammy Henault
Chief Marketing Officer, National Basketball Association
KEY STATS: Henault joined the NBA last November to head the global marketing efforts for the league and its affiliate leagues. She also is a leader in overseeing the NBA’s new Next Gen platform, working with the product and content teams on the reimagined NBA App and on NBA ID, the league’s new global membership program offering fans benefits and rewards.
VARSITY STATUS: Henault spent her career in direct-to-consumer marketing, first at magazines like People and Time and then at The New York Times as it began moving toward the digital age. She then worked for CBS and finally Paramount Global, where she managed a team of more than 150 employees responsible for brand, partnership and performance marketing as well as audience development, customer acquisition and retention. She oversaw marketing for more than 100 movies and TV shows, including Star Trek: Discovery and 1883 and also for the global launch of Paramount Plus.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “At the magazines and The New York Times, I lived the transformation from print to digital. With The Times, we were shifting from free consumption to pay and trying to stay ahead of the curve. It was an incredible experience to launch a whole new model for an industry. I left Paramount for the NBA because it is such a global powerhouse of a brand, with such a passionate fan base, which makes it a dream to work for. There are a lot of synergies from a content and media perspective and I thought my background could add value.
“I’m still learning a ton about our fans and the different audience types, who’s a viewer on linear and who’s on streaming. I’ll have the ‘new’ CMO attached to my title until I’ve gone through a full NBA season.”
Jodi Logsdon
VP, News and Editorial, CBS Sports
KEY STATS: Logsdon is responsible for editorial operations, newsgathering and research across platforms, serving as the lead editorial voice guiding CBS Sports productions. She also partners with leaders and other contributors to ensure CBS Sports’s high standards for news and reporting are met in all coverage across studio, game and digital productions. She also directs editorial operations for CBS Sports HQ and oversees the CBSSports.com editorial content division. Under her leadership, the research teams use data and statistics to enhance storytelling across productions and the News & Assignment Desk guides the reporting and presentation of breaking news and compelling developments across platforms. Logsdon also manages the CBS Sports Race & Culture Unit, which revolves around storytelling at the intersection of sports, race, identity and culture, and is the primary liaison for editorial coordination with CBS News.
VARSITY STATUS: A two-time Sports Emmy Award winner, Logsdon came to CBS Sports in 2015 after 12 years at ESPN. She had started as a news and copy editor for ESPN.com, eventually overseeing the daily newsgathering operation that supported ESPN’s studio productions. While there she was a contributor to ESPN’s Diversity & Inclusion Priority Team. She also was an inaugural member of the CBS Sports Inclusivity Advisory Council.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I came to CBS Sports because they hadn’t had a dedicated news and editorial person on the TV side and were just creating the role, so I was able to design it. They envisioned it as an individual contributor to cover everything. I started as an individual contributor, a singular voice focused on the news that must be addressed in our coverage. In the years since, I have built and enhanced multiple teams dedicated to informing our storytelling, our productions and, by extension, our audiences. A few years in, I also took over our two research teams, one for broadcast and one for cable, and merged them together. Now we’ve undertaken a larger effort across all CBS Sports to integrate all our digital teams more closely with linear networks and all editorial will be under me.
“For the editorial integration project we started this past spring I draw from experience I’ve gained at various stops along the course of my career, harnessing the lexicon learned in my tenure at ESPN.com and flexing the muscles I remember from my days with the ESPN news and assignment desk and as a coordinating producer on ESPNews. As we embark on our biggest college football season yet, and march toward our broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII, I’m humbled to know that the ever-growing news, research, editorial and Race & Culture teams I’ve built, and continue to build, serve to uplift the depth and breadth of that coverage.”
Stephanie Medina
Director, ‘Fox NFL Sunday,’ Fox Sports
KEY STATS: For 2022, Medina oversaw a major overhaul at Fox NFL Sunday as the pregame show got a new set, control room, cameras and graphics system. “This felt like a new beginning, and I got to lead that,” the Emmy Award-winning director said. “It was challenging because I needed to learn the technology and incorporate it without losing what is the core of our show, those five guys at the desk.”
VARSITY STATUS: Medina joined Fox as an associate director for the network’s Major League Baseball and NFL pregame shows in 2003. She directed the network’s Bowl Championship Series pregame coverage in 2006 and 2007, as well as MLB pregame shows in 2008 and 2009 and the pregame show for Super Bowl LI. She began as director of Fox NFL Sunday at the start of the 2013-14 season and made her Super Bowl debut at Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. “No other women were getting to direct like this and some people didn’t want me to get the job, but producer Bill Richards and [Fox Sports CEO] Eric Shanks gave me this opportunity.”
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I was a news junkie at a young age and then on a field trip in eighth grade we went to see the working of a TV studio and I saw the chaos and the yelling and the monitors and it was like the angels started singing. It was like nirvana for me.
“I was the first in my family to go to college. I majored in communications and just wanted to get into TV production — I liked the live crazy element — but I knew no one in the business. I realized my only way in was internships. I worked my butt off at an internship at KTLA [Los Angeles] and soon after they called me because they needed help on the assignment desk. I kept getting calls, to help in graphics or to load the tape. When people would quit, I’d fall in. I got to be assistant director on their early news show, and then their main one and then I became director. It took a good eight years to get from working for free to directing.”
Gina DiGioia Sheldon
Chief Legal Officer, Fubo
KEY STATS: Sheldon was Fubo’s first in-house legal hire, joining just before the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. She built Fubo’s legal team and became the company’s first chief legal officer. Sheldon now leads all legal matters for Fubo, including financing, acquisitions and corporate governance. On the executive management team, Sheldon helps shape Fubo’s internal legal function and helps define the company’s strategy.
Sheldon closed two acquisitions to expand Fubo’s global footprint and tech capabilities: Edisn.ai, an AI-powered computer vision technology firm based in Bangalore, India, aimed at creating a more interactive and immersive live TV and sports viewership experience, and live TV streaming company Molotov SAS in France, which reaches nearly 4 million monthly active users in Europe. She also headed the legal proceedings at home for carriage agreements at regional sports networks, including Altitude Sports in 10 Rocky Mountain states and with Sinclair Broadcast Group to bring the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks to Fubo, making the streamer home to more than 35 regional sports networks.
Sheldon also was involved with rights deals, including an exclusive year-long partnership with former NFL player Shawne Merriman’s Lights Out Xtreme Fighting MMA league and a multiyear renewal with NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas for his series No Chill. She also oversees patent filings for proprietary technology that will differentiate the Fubo streaming platform.
VARSITY STATUS: Sheldon began her career as an apprentice with the State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. She then went to law school hoping to get involved with international transactional work. After working for small firms, she spent 17 years at Alloy Inc. and Alloy Digital, working on media deals, mergers and acquisitions and e-commerce. “I like to say I grew up at Alloy,” she said.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I joined Fubo because my sweet spot is working with growth-stage companies and Fubo had just gone through a merger and was growing and looking to do an IPO. I love to be hands-on and dig in, working with an entrepreneurial managerial team. At a growth stage, you can have more of an impact because you’re not put in the box of just doing legal: There’s enough work to go around and I’m one of the more experienced folks here. There was a large learning curve, but I bring my experience into conversations and transactions. I’m not just thinking about just legal rights and clearances, but about dollars and long-term strategy. I’m looking at things holistically.”
