American tennis journalism has been shrinking, and this month it lost another of its few remaining pillars. David Kane, a renowned tennis journalist, worked as an editorial producer and lead editor for Tennis Channel and Tennis.com for almost five years before it shut down the division. So, he is now looking for work. 

“Tennis Channel eliminated its Editorial department earlier this month,” Kane wrote. “So I am no longer with the company after five years.”

His X bio now shows him as the ex-lead editor of Tennis.com and as a former WTA showman. But Kane did not use the post only to spread the word. He looked back on what he built. 

“During that time, I worked to turn Tennis.com into an essential part of the tennis fan’s media diet. I got to cover all four major tournaments in person, build amazing connections with players, and grow as both a storyteller and a content creator.” 

“I’m excited to get back into the field in a full-time or freelance capacity, within tennis or without.” 

The announcement comes when the network has yet to comment publicly, at least as far as it has been reported, on the latest cuts. It also follows a sequence of changes that had already eliminated most of the editorial identity. To understand the full context, one needs to go back to the 1990s.

Liza Horan, the founding editor and producer of Tennis.com, wrote on LinkedIn that Tennis magazine first went online through Microsoft Network for the 1996 Australian Open, and that she launched TennisMagazine.com that May. She also had to convince her boss to buy the tennis.com domain from squatters. Her case for it was three words: “It is everything.”

The site then built its name on writers. Pete Bodo spent roughly 50 years writing for Tennis magazine and its online platform Tennis.com, and wrote the 1994 book The Courts of Babylon, while Steve Tignor had written for the magazine since 1998. In 2005, both started blogs on the site, and Bodo told Defector he was likely among the first people a media company paid to write one.

But ownership changed in 2017. Sinclair had bought Tennis Channel in March 2016, and its March 1, 2017 release said it was adding the magazine and website to create one tennis media group. The release put the magazine’s circulation at 600,000, the highest in its category.

Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley also said the company was committed to enhancing Tennis Channel’s role as the “undisputed tennis-media hub.” However, Defector reported that Tennis Channel rarely promoted Tennis.com on its own airwaves.

The print magazine then ended in 2022, within five and a half years of the deal. The website carried on, but writers say it changed. Bodo felt his freedom to criticize players or the tours had narrowed because of corporate concerns about offending broadcast partners, and he said the site increasingly read like a promotional vehicle for Tennis Channel and the tours.

Van Sias, a longtime contributor, saw his regular work slow in 2023 as the pitching process grew more complicated. Daniel Kaplan, who covered the business of tennis for Sports Business Journal until 2019, wrote in a column for Awful Announcing that Sinclair also stopped funding the publication in any meaningful way earlier this year.

Eventually, Tennis.com shut down its editorial operation the day after this year’s French Open ended. The relaunched site is a scoreboard with tabs for the schedule and rankings, and a link to the news archive sits at the bottom of a long scroll.

Bodo, by then part-time, and Tignor had been warned of likely changes by their editor, Ed McGrogan, who passed messages down from higher-ups. The speed still surprised them.

“The [new] website debuts, and there’s no editorial content,” Bodo told Defector. “It became clear immediately that they didn’t want editorial content. All they wanted was to promote gambling and the Tennis Channel.” 

Bodo then said word came through McGrogan that the company was going in a different direction and that his last check would arrive in July. Defector reported that neither he nor Tignor heard from anyone at Tennis Channel. It also reported that Tennis.com’s FAQ describes the site as a scores and tournament information destination and sends readers to tennischannel.com and the Tennis Channel app for analysis and original programming.

Tennis Channel’s explanation to Defector, published in July, was brief. McGrogan referred writer Owen Lewis to Jill Dortheimer, the network’s vice president of communications.

She said Tennis.com was in the midst of a full rebuild and that the first priority was fast, comprehensive schedules, scores, draws and data. Lewis said his follow-up questions, including whether Google’s AI summaries had hurt traffic, went unanswered, and another editor declined to speak. Just months later, Kane had to leave, too, with Tennis Channel shutting down its editorial operations entirely.

Those involved have offered their own reasons. Bodo told Defector he did not think traffic was the issue: “I think they were probably thinking that if they want to do editorial, they can get AI. I don’t think it was a traffic issue. Clearly, everything is going to AI.”

Tignor said Google’s AI summaries have probably hurt many sites but that he could not say whether Tennis.com was among them. He also said he knew changes were coming with the spring relaunch and had hoped to write newsletters from a new web address, but concluded that:

“I think they finally decided that they weren’t gonna do that. I think they thought they could get enough people to come to tennis.com just for the basics. I think that had been in the works for a little while.” 

Horan further wrote in her LinkedIn post that she was saddened by what was happening, arguing that quality editorial is worth the investment for companies that understand digital strategy and their audience. She herself was laid off in 2005, during a period of corporate restructuring involving the publication’s ownership.

The issue isn’t limited to Tennis.com, though. On February 4, 2026, The Washington Post announced that it would eliminate its sports department in its existing form, moving some remaining reporters into features coverage. Kaplan wrote that every story he opened in the Post’s tennis section came from the Associated Press, even on the US Open’s opening weekend. He pointed to Substacks such as Ben Rothenberg’s Bounces and Simon Cambers’ own newsletter, but said such outlets cannot serve as a central place for daily coverage.

Axios reported in February that ESPN closed Grantland in 2015 and print edition of ESPN the Magazine in 2019, and that fans now get much of their sports information from social media, fantasy and gambling apps and podcasts.

The changes at Tennis Channel have unfolded amid a wider push across tennis to reach fans through digital platforms. The USTA credentialed 54 content creators for the 2025 US Open before approving nearly 100 for the 2026 tournament, with its media operations director, Jeanmarie Daly, saying traditional media and creators reach different audiences. Meanwhile, Tennis Channel CEO Jeff Blackburn outlined a strategy in April centered on strengthening the network’s digital products and streaming service.