ESPN lands Silver

Nate Silver, the statistician/blogger whose profile rose considerably during the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, is leaving the New York Times for a job at ESPN that will return him, in part, to his sports roots. Silver’s blog FiveThirtyEight is moving to Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN from the Times, which has been his outlet since 2010. Silver, who got his start analyzing baseball stats, will build a team to cover sports and politics, as well as topics such as economics, culture, science and technology. The site will exist independently of ESPN’s official site and will have its own voice, the company said Monday. – Los Angeles Times