I read a lot of sports news (and pay for some of it) and I've never heard of Deadspin. After reading the article I'm also struggling to figure out what they changed. Is anyone more familiar able to explain more clearly?
Deadspin's motto was "Sports news without access, favor or discretion". Unlike traditional media that essentially acts as mouthpieces for the teams that they cover (think of any press conference and the kinds of questions being asked, and the types of response they're designed to elicit), they used their status as outsiders to look at sports with a critical lens, and hold people in power in sports to account.
This didn't mean they hated sports though - you could tell from most of their reporting, especially by the OGs(Will Leitch, Drew Magary, Tim Burke etc), that they LOVED sports and wanted the people and teams involved to just be better. They also broke a lot of bonkers stories like the Manti Te'o scandal (highly recommend reading their report on it)[1] that no one in traditional media did a good job of interrograting or digging into.
The site still exists, but if you read it now you won't see this kind of reporting. It all changed about two years when they were bought by private equity (G/O I wanna say) who attempted to exercise control over their editorial, resulting in a mass resignation. Many of the old writers started Defector (https://defector.com/), which writes in the same spirit.
> It all changed about two years when they were bought by private equity (G/O I wanna say) who attempted to exercise control over their editorial, resulting in a mass resignation. Many of the old writers started Defector (https://defector.com/), which writes in the same spirit.
This really was one of the most fascinating journalism stories in recent years. There was this well respected and financially successful media company, in an industry in which most outlets are struggling. But management had no idea what made that company successful and was seemingly on a mission to kill what made it unique. Eventually management got so bad that the entire staff resigned over the course of a few days. Dozens of people quit their job in a shrinking industry in which any journalism job can be your last. Then after a year of many of the journalists bouncing between freelancing gigs, most of that staff is able to band together to create a new company. This time it is a workers collective in which the journalists are not just employees, but also owners. The new company is almost immediately a success, continues to grow in size, and build on the legacy of the original site. I have never seen anything like that before.
A similar story played out in Jalopnik, an automotive blog with a similar irreverent outsider ethos under the same Gawker Media Group umbrella as Deadspin. Many writers came and went, including a group that started The Autopian (https://www.theautopian.com/) which reminds me of a Jalopnik before the buyout.
I mostly appreciate deadspin for its snark [1], it’s usually more entertainment than reporting (or even much about the actual games for that matter).
Snark was what attracted me to Gawker (the sister site to Deadspin). The general tone was something like "these elites and celebrities aren't as great as they think they are" which made it a guilty pleasure read. Reading it (and I assume Deadspin is similar) was like hanging out with a cool friend who was aware of everything hip going on and had all the right quips.
You know how when you're watching a sporting event and some deranged fan runs out onto the field, the broadcaster, knowing that the team and league wants to discourage such behavior, switches to a distant aerial view while the commentators tut tut about it?
Deadspin would instead gleefully post videos of the madness.
This didn't mean they hated sports though - you could tell from most of their reporting, especially by the OGs(Will Leitch, Drew Magary, Tim Burke etc), that they LOVED sports and wanted the people and teams involved to just be better. They also broke a lot of bonkers stories like the Manti Te'o scandal (highly recommend reading their report on it)[1] that no one in traditional media did a good job of interrograting or digging into.
The site still exists, but if you read it now you won't see this kind of reporting. It all changed about two years when they were bought by private equity (G/O I wanna say) who attempted to exercise control over their editorial, resulting in a mass resignation. Many of the old writers started Defector (https://defector.com/), which writes in the same spirit.
[1] https://deadspin.com/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-hea...