Current Events > Well Deadspin's probably dead now

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://thespun.com/more/sports-media/deadspin-barry-petchesky-fired-stick-to-sports-go-media-jim-spanfeller

Since the sites inception, Deadspin has never been very concerned with sticking to sports. While the former Gawker Media sports site broke plenty of major stories, and provided valuable commentary in the sports world, in recent years it has become as known for political commentary, media coverage, and a potpourri of other topics, all with its sharp-edged voice.

Deadspin staffers have said that posts like David Roths commentary on President Donald Trump, and annual things like Drew Magarys hilarious perusal of the Williams-Sonoma holiday catalogue are among the highest trafficked posts that it produces. One could argue that it would then behoove the new ownership group, G/O Media, to encourage, or at least leave alone, those aspects of the site.

Instead, on Monday an email sent by G/O Media to Deadspin staffers, management effectively told the site to stick to sports.

From The Daily Beast, which first reported the contents of the email:

In a Monday memo to staff, G/O Media editorial director Paul Maidment told the employees of the sitewhich primarily covers sports, but also frequently writes about media, politics, and cultureto abstain from stories that do not have an explicit link to sports.

To create as much great sports journalism as we can requires a 100% focus of our resources on sports. And it will be the sole focus, Maidment said. Deadspin will write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way.

[]

Where such subjects touch on sports, they are fair game for Deadspin. Where they do not, they are not, Maidment wrote. We have plenty of other sites that write about politics, pop culture, the arts, and the rest, and theyre the appropriate place for such work.

That last point was greeted with numerous eye rolls, as the email was sent 10 days after G/O Media shuttered its politics site Splinter News, so there really isnt a more appropriate place for that content and commentary.

Deadspin staffers were also angry about the deletion of a post in which they acknowledged the autoplay video ads on the site, and directed reader complaints to G/O Media.

That email address has reportedly been shut down, after the flood of reader complaints.

It didnt take long for more fallout to come. This afternoon, Deadspin deputy editor Barry Petchesky, the sites longest-tenured full-time employee per former staffer Tim Burke, announced that he had been fired.

This has launched an outpouring of support for Petchesky, and further criticism of CEO Jim Spanfeller and G/O Media as a whole, from those still employed at the site.

Deadspin has been thrown for a serious loop over the last few years, in the fallout of the landmark Gawker Media/Hulk Hogan trial which lead to multiple firesales of Gawker Media Group and its properties, including Deadspin. Through a number of changes, the site has survived without really changing its voice or content in any major way.

This signals the end of that reality, unfortunately for those who valued what Deadspin brought to not only the sports media world, but the modern media landscape as a whole.

---

I love deadspin. Been a reader for close to a decade. It has gone downhill recently, not the writers fault but the management. I was a big gawker family reader across all their sites. They are all just shells of their former selves.

A direct relative of mine was a national sports writer. He retired a few years ago noting the whole industry was going to hell in a handbasket. So this does not surprise me.

---

RIP in peace Gawker Media. I spent a lot of time there.

And fuck you too, Hulk Hogan.

---

i only really give a shit about why your team sucks from them

BruceWayneJr posted...

RIP in peace Gawker Media. I spent a lot of time there.

And fuck you too, Hulk Hogan.

I still spend alot of time there, but so many of my favorite writers left. No joke, the sense of humor of people like Maddie Davies actually got me into the habit of reading femnist blogs in a non ironic way. I was really disappointed when she left.

---

Sports Illustrated and now deadspin. These morons who buy these publications really think stripping them down and taking away what made them popular to readers wont matter. These people really think they'll retain the same numbers based off of the names themselves...its baffling in its ignorance

---

BruceWayneJr posted...

RIP in peace Gawker Media. I spent a lot of time there.

And fuck you too, Hulk Hogan.

I enjoyed the Gawker network a lot in their prime, and some of the sites were still good afterward (pretty bummed about Splinter tbh), but Hulk Hogan was 100% in the right to sue them for what they did
---

lmao, Hogan laid the smack down on Gawker.

EDIT: Wait, people like gawker now? I thought they were pretty universally hated on gamefaqs a few years ago.
---

Since I'm here, I also used to like Gawker but since they are mostly garbage now. what are some good blogs, to read? I like The War Zone(a TheDrive sub blog) for military news.
---

I have been on gamefaqs since 98 and on this account since Jan 2001. I just do me though. I like most of the gawker sites.

---

mustachedmystic posted...

Since I'm here, I also used to like Gawker but since they are mostly garbage now. what are some good blogs, to read? I like The War Zone(a TheDrive sub blog) for military news.

Warzone is great. Tyler leaving foxtrot was a blow.

I have yet to find a replacement. I read vice but it is up itself and lacks snark.

---

I followed Tyler to The Warzome, now I never go to Foxtrot.
---

pogo_rabid posted...

EDIT: Wait, people like gawker now? I thought they were pretty universally hated on gamefaqs a few years ago.

I'm surprised to see positive posts about it too. CE used to love to hate on Gawker.
---

I wonder how much money these guys could get if they banded together and started a new website with a subscription-based model.

Like, continue doing what you did on Deadspin, don't try and compete with something like The Athletic.
---

pogo_rabid posted...

lmao, Hogan laid the smack down on Gawker.

EDIT: Wait, people like gawker now? I thought they were pretty universally hated on gamefaqs a few years ago.

They were, and tbqh I never got the hate
I still don't get the kotaku hate
---

Master_Bass posted...

pogo_rabid posted...

EDIT: Wait, people like gawker now? I thought they were pretty universally hated on gamefaqs a few years ago.

I'm surprised to see positive posts about it too. CE used to love to hate on Gawker.

I think there's only specific parts of Gawker people don't like.

Actually looking at that site, CruelBuffalo is literally the only person who posts about Deadspin lol
---

I have only posted here the past year or so. Most the other boards I did are either dead or lack new blood, so old drama still runs them.

So i have no idea what this board liked or did not.

Gawker was tabloid trash, but the sites also had some fearless reporting, thought provoking opinions, and not filled with BS clickbait top 10 lists with one entry per page or needless video content.

---

Damn staff is really speaking out about this

all the top stories right now are non sports related

---

TheGoldenEel posted...

Damn staff is really speaking out about this

all the top stories right now are non sports related

Call me when the teen mom Farrah story is number 1!

---

Is this considered sports related

https://deadspin.com/reports-no-nba-team-has-an-f-in-its-name-1838950766/amp

---

I'm going to miss their posts about Buffalo Bills fans putting each other through tables, because that's probably not "sports-related" enough now.
---

BeantownHero posted...

Sports Illustrated and now deadspin. These morons who buy these publications really think stripping them down and taking away what made them popular to readers wont matter. These people really think they'll retain the same numbers based off of the names themselves...its baffling in its ignorance

They do not believe that. The plan is explicitly to profit off the gap between the name brand and actual quality.
---

Antifar posted...

They do not believe that. The plan is explicitly to profit off the gap between the name brand and actual quality.

It's like why every time EA buys a company it dies shortly after. They're essentially buying the reputation and liquidating it. Doesn't matter if the company no longer sticks around - they'll just move on to the next one
---

TheGoldenEel posted...

Is this considered sports related

https://deadspin.com/reports-no-nba-team-has-an-f-in-its-name-1838950766/amp

Yes, it's a sports-related joke
---

Like I noted, my relative was a national sports journalist (papers) from the early 80s until around 2010. He covered MLB, NFL, NHL, college athletics and covered multiple Olympics. Although he is a huge basketball fan, he didn't really do much with the NBA regularly. He was a print guy, only appearing on TV at the local/regional levels. But his stuff would go out nationally on the wire services.

He is retired now but still does some gig work here and there for the MLB and NHL. His office was getting gutted of staff and they were bringing in more contract writers or gig writers. The standard corporate America, do more with less, at a lower quality.

Basically, the media is f'ed in all fields. Journalism is dying replaced by the opinions of the hoi polloi repackaged to the public by corporations are people for pennies in pay but benjamins in profits in the form of embrace debate.

---

Antifar posted...

They do not believe that. The plan is explicitly to profit off the gap between the name brand and actual quality.

Yup. Private equity firms are scum.

---

furb posted...

Like I noted, my relative was a national sports journalist (papers) from the early 80s until around 2010. He covered MLB, NFL, NHL, college athletics and covered multiple Olympics. Although he is a huge basketball fan, he didn't really do much with the NBA regularly. He was a print guy, only appearing on TV at the local/regional levels. But his stuff would go out nationally on the wire services.

He is retired now but still does some gig work here and there for the MLB and NHL. His office was getting gutted of staff and they were bringing in more contract writers or gig writers. The standard corporate America, do more with less, at a lower quality.

Basically, the media is f'ed in all fields. Journalism is dying replaced by the opinions of the hoi polloi repackaged to the public by corporations are people for pennies in pay but benjamins in profits in the form of embrace debate.

Well said.
---

they had a couple good investigative reporters, but really the main reason i went to deadspin at all was for drew magary, and his content there paled in comparison to his stuff on KSK
---

https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/1189329469468794880
---

Bio1590 posted...

I wonder how much money these guys could get if they banded together and started a new website with a subscription-based model.

Seemed like you were on to something, until "subscription".
You cannot be indexed by google, and still have a meaningful (or even functional) paywall.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Bio1590 posted...

I wonder how much money these guys could get if they banded together and started a new website with a subscription-based model.

Seemed like you were on to something, until "subscription".
You cannot be indexed by google, and still have a meaningful (or even functional) paywall.

I don't think that's harming The Athletic. Deadspin definitely has a dedicated base, it's worth looking into.
---

https://twitter.com/toley88/status/1189656923693555725?s=21

https://twitter.com/laurawags/status/1189657556354031620?s=21

Time to remove the "probably"
---

Master_Bass posted...

pogo_rabid posted...

EDIT: Wait, people like gawker now? I thought they were pretty universally hated on gamefaqs a few years ago.

I'm surprised to see positive posts about it too. CE used to love to hate on Gawker.

The topic title doesn't have Gawker or Kotaku so they'll probably skip over the topic.
---

BruceWayneJr posted...

RIP in peace Gawker Media. I spent a lot of time there.

And fuck you too, Hulk Hogan.

Hey fuck you too brother
---

Deadspin has been shit for a few years now. I used to religiously read it, but the writers lost their bite. It became really lazy preaching and went further and further away from sports and more into BernieBro The Blogs

Bio1590 posted...

https://twitter.com/toley88/status/1189656923693555725?s=21

https://twitter.com/laurawags/status/1189657556354031620?s=21

Time to remove the "probably"

Lara sucked lol

Read topic title as meat

I think Deadspin was an important voice juxtiposed to places like Barstool and SB Nation. I'm worried they just want to clone those sites now.

---

SB Nation doesn't "stick to sports" either.
https://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy-stories

RacistHulkHogan posted...

BruceWayneJr posted...

RIP in peace Gawker Media. I spent a lot of time there.

And fuck you too, Hulk Hogan.

Hey fuck you too brother

forgot to flip him off

hi hoth.
---

I wonder if any of the other sites will have an exodus of staff as well. If they don't ease up on their policies it seems pretty likely.
---

furb posted...

I think Deadspin was an important voice juxtiposed to places like Barstool and SB Nation. I'm worried they just want to clone those sites now.

SBNation is the route Deadspin should have tried to stay in.

SBNation is nothing like Barstool other than making jokes about *shocking* sports!

Oh shit they turned off the comments on deadspin

theyre really trying to kill it at this point huh

---

https://mobile.twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1189665081656856576
---

all that's left is for drew to quit as well
---

more like DEADspin

---

Lauren Thiessen and Patrick Redford have also quit.
---

I never read a huge amount from them owing to typically reading non American media for sports but I'd occasionally come across some good stuff from them. I thought they balanced the sports coverage well with the sassy internet stuff. They also seem to annoy all the right people. Definitely a pity if they go out like this.

Man, all those barstool nuthuggers are the worst huh

barstool is frat boy trash in "sports blog" form
---