Deadspin

[panda]

Sports for people who hate sports!

The last few years, Deadspin became a caricature of themselves, which is too bad as how they were must read for such a long time.

[panda]

No loss to me as I'm not on Deadspin.

Congratulations ?

[Mr. Nielsen]

Other than Awful Announcing putting the story out there. Also, having reads in what they do or not do. Not sure how big they were or not.

[Cheeks]

I don't know if people have been following this, but when Deadspin and its sister sites were sold to a private equity firm and branded under "G/O Media," the new owners wanted less politics and more sports coverage.  Mirroring the "stick to sports" mantra that many of its detractors had traditionally used.  Furthermore, they started using auto-play video advertisements, which its editors and writers complained about.

On Tuesday, as a form of protest, they only ran stories with no sports content.  The owners then fired editor Barry Petchesky, and yesterday 8 or 9 of their top writers resigned in protest.

So there goes Deadspin.  I know it had its detractors, but it played a role in the sports media landscape.  Undoubtedly new editors and writers will be hired, but I doubt it will ever be the same.

It has sucked a long time ago.  They can go start their own site, take the financial risk, get backers, write what they want and see if they can survive. If they can, more power to them.  If they cannot, it should be a giant data point on why they were being told not to mix stuff up.

 There is a HUGE reason ESPN stopped this stuff and it is $$$$ driven.

A huge reason why the NFL got the players to stop their actions.  The data we have is overwhelming

[Cheeks]

Deadspin was the best site on the internet (non-Scoop category, of course). That only ended this week. Nowhere else combined sports news and highlights with other news, opinion, longform, and investigative journalism the way they did. Calling out BS when it's deserved doesn't make you miserable.

Calling out BS with consistently only one lens was just that...BS. 

[JWags85]

I didn't even know there was a beef between Deadspin and Barstool.

Dave Portnoy is a d bag.  His dad is hilarious though, at least as a guest on PMT.

PMT is still solid but their guests have gone downhill big time of late.  Not a fan of the Monday no guest shows.  Very long and they aren't the brightest minds out there.  The best parts of their shows are the interviews with guys who have a dry sense of humor and/or are very open (Blake Griffin/Bortles, Koepka, Mr. Portnoy, Jim Harbough, the Spittin Chicklets guys, Joe Buck, Edelman, the Long brothers).

Deadspin realized Barstool had stolen their share of the edgy absurdist sports tangent space and was very much their opposite in terms of PC viewpoints and content.  This lead to Deadspin aiming at Barstool to an obsessive degree and gleefully “reporting” on Barstool employees jaywalking or the like.

Another key difference was there is a big element of kayfabe to Barstool that doesn’t exist at Deadspin and they never grasped.  For example, El Presidente is absolutely a douche, but nearly everyone who calls Dave Portnoy a dbag hasn’t met him.  Dan Katz is a different personality than Big Cat. I have multiple friends/colleagues who met Portnoy off camera/non persona at sporting events or the like and were shocked what a nice approachable dude he is. The same dude has been spearheading 6 figure charity fundraisers and donations for myriad causes from Barstool’s early Boston days.

Their content isn’t for everyone, and even as a Barstool fan for years, the absolute worst component is the hoards of immature fans who think they will gain favor with Barstool personalities by relentlessly attacking anyone who speaks bad of the brand. They’ve tried to curb it, but controlling Internet mobs is gnarly.

I used to be a rabid Deadspin fan but the site absolutely went off the rails as was mentioned earlier. I was always waiting for them to publish an article about why dogs suck and puppies are overrated cause they trended dangerously close. Drew Magary was my favorite Internet writer for years, but even he got aggressively political and spiteful, beyond his normal sarcastic irreverent tone.

At the end of the day, it’s pretty amazing how Deadspin is being viewed in media. It’s still a business after all, they were falling behind all their peers and thumbing their noses at management who dared to value profitability and click through. Misguided idealism IMO

[CreightonWarrior]

Hulk Hogan is feeling pretty good today.

[Jockey]

This is all that it is about.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/deadspin-media-industry-dying_n_5dbadc7ae4b0bb1ea375dce7


And, yes I realize that HuffPo is a bunch of snotty nosed millenials, GenY, and Gen Z whiners. So spare me the comments on the source.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Other than Awful Announcing putting the story out there. Also, having reads in what they do or not do. Not sure how big they were or not.

It's pretty difficult to follow sports and not know what Deadspin is.

[Pakuni]

This is all that it is about.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/deadspin-media-industry-dying_n_5dbadc7ae4b0bb1ea375dce7


And, yes I realize that HuffPo is a bunch of snotty nosed millenials, GenY, and Gen Z whiners. So spare me the comments on the source.

The content of that story does nothing to support the headline.
It's true that corporate overlords are buying up media companies and gutting them the way Gordon Gecko wanted to gut Bluestar, but that's not what happened with Deadspin. It's more like its new owners didn't really understand what they were buying, tried to change it in the most clumsy of ways, and it blew up in their face.

[Mr. Nielsen]

It's pretty difficult to follow sports and not know what Deadspin is.

Depends how you follow it. If you just watch TV. Or just sports radio. Why would you know or even care.

[JWags85]

The content of that story does nothing to support the headline.
It's true that corporate overlords are buying up media companies and gutting them the way Gordon Gecko wanted to gut Bluestar, but that's not what happened with Deadspin. It's more like its new owners didn't really understand what they were buying, tried to change it in the most clumsy of ways, and it blew up in their face.

Or they tried to fix something that wasn’t working in a way that perhaps wasn’t very effective. In an age of engagement ruling all, Deadspin got relatively little engagement. Look no farther than Twitter. Barstool/ESPN/Bleacher Report/etc... bloggers have hundreds of thousands of followers and and get hundreds of comments on posts or links. Deadspin had a fraction of that.  The demise of Gawker hurt Deadspin, but they didn’t flourish in the aftermath. If their content and engagement was good enough, they could have rose to the top again. So many of the links that people shared in the last few days to remember Deadspin were years old. The site recently bore very little resemblance to when they set the world on fire with the Manti Teo reporting and others.

[CreightonWarrior]

Really glad to see it wasn’t just me feeling that way about deadspin lately. I used to go there multiple times a day. Now I just keep an eye on them on Twitter and maybe click once a week.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Depends how you follow it. If you just watch TV. Or just sports radio. Why would you know or even care.

If you don’t care, why even post in the topic?

[Mr. Nielsen]

If you don’t care, why even post in the topic?

Your missing the point on your own statement at 3:43, that I answered.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Your missing the point on your own statement at 3:43, that I answered.

I didn’t care enough to read your entire post actually.

[Pakuni]

Or they tried to fix something that wasn’t working in a way that perhaps wasn’t very effective. In an age of engagement ruling all, Deadspin got relatively little engagement. Look no farther than Twitter. Barstool/ESPN/Bleacher Report/etc... bloggers have hundreds of thousands of followers and and get hundreds of comments on posts or links. Deadspin had a fraction of that.  The demise of Gawker hurt Deadspin, but they didn’t flourish in the aftermath. If their content and engagement was good enough, they could have rose to the top again. So many of the links that people shared in the last few days to remember Deadspin were years old. The site recently bore very little resemblance to when they set the world on fire with the Manti Teo reporting and others.

What's happened to Deadspin in the past couple of days had nothing to do with its content, engagement or a need to fix it. Deadspin was of better quality under Leitch and Daulerio, but its tone and content - and, gasp, politics - have been fairly consistent throughout. Deadspin never stuck to sports and it's dumb to think that it would gain more readers and engagement if it did.
Again, this is all about a company that didn't understand what it was buying.

And re: your earlier post, Portnoy's charitable efforts, as laudable as they may be, does not excuse  his terrible behavior. He and his site are not mere bystanders to the harassment brigages of Stoolies. They very much encourage it. Arguing that "El Presidente" is somehow just a character he plays is lame rationalization. And plenty of people who've met Portnoy consider him a massive dbag.

[cheebs09]

Depends how you follow it. If you just watch TV. Or just sports radio. Why would you know or even care.

Didn’t they break the Te’o fake gf and Favre sexting scandal? There was a time they were breaking news. They were kind of the TMZ of sports stories and covered on those two mediums.

[Jockey]

Didn’t they break the Te’o fake gf and Favre sexting scandal? There was a time they were breaking news. They were kind of the TMZ of sports stories and covered on those two mediums.

Making the best argument ever against Deadspin.

[MU82]

A huge reason why the NFL got the players to stop their actions. 

They did?

Eric Reid still kneels before every game, right in public. Kapernick is still blackballed, but there is absolutely no punishment for any athlete taking a political stance. They tried writing a rule, it was quickly killed after facing significant backlash, and it simply stopped being an issue. But not because "the NFL got the players to stop." As I said, at least one player kneels during the anthem before every single game, home or road. No punishment, no censure, no nothing. The NFL simply ignores him.

[4everwarriors]

I don't know if people have been following this, but when Deadspin and its sister sites were sold to a private equity firm and branded under "G/O Media," the new owners wanted less politics and more sports coverage.  Mirroring the "stick to sports" mantra that many of its detractors had traditionally used.  Furthermore, they started using auto-play video advertisements, which its editors and writers complained about.

On Tuesday, as a form of protest, they only ran stories with no sports content.  The owners then fired editor Barry Petchesky, and yesterday 8 or 9 of their top writers resigned in protest.

So there goes Deadspin.  I know it had its detractors, but it played a role in the sports media landscape.  Undoubtedly new editors and writers will be hired, but I doubt it will ever be the same.

Eye cee an opportunity for Nads ta make a cumback, aina?

[MU82]

Eye cee an opportunity for Nads ta make a cumback, aina?

Show me the Benjamins, baby! I'm having way too much fun to make a comeback unless there are lots of Benjamins.

Now ... a "cumback" ... that sounds more up your alley, Doc.

[JWags85]

What's happened to Deadspin in the past couple of days had nothing to do with its content, engagement or a need to fix it. Deadspin was of better quality under Leitch and Daulerio, but its tone and content - and, gasp, politics - have been fairly consistent throughout. Deadspin never stuck to sports and it's dumb to think that it would gain more readers and engagement if it did.
Again, this is all about a company that didn't understand what it was buying.

And re: your earlier post, Portnoy's charitable efforts, as laudable as they may be, does not excuse  his terrible behavior. He and his site are not mere bystanders to the harassment brigages of Stoolies. They very much encourage it. Arguing that "El Presidente" is somehow just a character he plays is lame rationalization. And plenty of people who've met Portnoy consider him a massive dbag.

But there is a skill to having a tone and message without bashing you over the head with it. I can read content from people all over the political spectrum as long as it’s entertaining and not ham fisted. Deadspin got ham fisted and whiny in my opinion. Leitch has a lot in common ideologically with the recent crop and Daluerio was actually slimy and deplorable in many ways, but they were entertaining and engaging content was king, that got lost. To think that Deadspin as it was before the recent acquisition was anything more than a reclamation project is revisionist history, IMO.

And I’ll fully agree Barstool lost control of the supporter crew. I can assure you a brand with the success they have doesn’t want 17 year olds calling people profanities and other demeaning names on their behalf. The loyalty and engagement that built them from a plucky underdog that they readily encouraged to go to bat for them got way out of control. They killed off their own comment section cause it got so bad.

 And I’m interested to know who thinks Portnoy the civilian is a massive dbag. I’m not talking people who engaged him on content or went at him for various Barstool grievances.  I know 2 pizza owners in NYC, one that that wouldn’t know Barstool from Whirlpool, and the other who hated their Boston slant, who couldn’t speak more highly after they got contacted and did pizza reviews.

[MUBurrow]

Hulk Hogan is feeling pretty good today.

He was a pawn and may or may not even know any of this is happening. Peter Thiel on the other hand, is really doing his best evil guy laugh.

[Cheeks]

They did?

Eric Reid still kneels before every game, right in public. Kapernick is still blackballed, but there is absolutely no punishment for any athlete taking a political stance. They tried writing a rule, it was quickly killed after facing significant backlash, and it simply stopped being an issue. But not because "the NFL got the players to stop." As I said, at least one player kneels during the anthem before every single game, home or road. No punishment, no censure, no nothing. The NFL simply ignores him.

The vast majority got the message and we were let in on what that was...as were other partners.  The players are not dumb, the player agents are really really not dumb, and neither is the league.  Honest question, are the actions anywhere close to what they were a few years ago by the players...do you believe that?  Do you believe ther were reasons why so much was pulled back in terms of their way of protesting?