panelist
John Skipper
Executive Vice President, Content
ESPN

John Skipper, who in more than 12 years with ESPN has played key roles at ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, advertising sales and ESPN Enterprises (brand extensions), was named to the newly created position of executive vice president, content, in October 2005. He is responsible for the creation, programming and production of ESPN content across all media platforms, including television, radio, Internet, broadband, wireless publishing, interactive games and home entertainment.

Skipper joined ESPN in June 1997 as senior vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine, where he oversaw one of the most successful magazine launches of the 1990s. In January 2000, he added the same title for ESPN.com and in January 2003 was promoted to executive vice president. In 2004, Sporting News named Skipper the most important media executive in sports, and in 2008, he was ranked 30th in “The Power 100,” BusinessWeek’s list of the 100 most powerful people in sports.

Before joining ESPN The Magazine, Skipper served as senior vice president of The Disney Publishing Group and as president and publishing director at Spin magazine. Earlier he spent 10 years at Straight Arrow Publishing, including eight years with Rolling Stone. At Straight Arrow, he rose to publisher of US magazine.