Drew Magary and other Deadspin writers new site

[warriorchick]

For all you Drew Magary Fans out there:



It looks like he and his other Deadspin compatriots have started a new site called Defector, and right on schedule, Drew has posted his always-hilarious Haters Guide to Williams Sonoma Catalog.  Enjoy:

https://defector.com/the-2020-haters-guide-to-the-williams-sonoma-catalog/

[Galway Eagle]

I have a friend who literally talks like Drew writes. This always cracks me up.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I saw this Defector site a few weeks ago.  It looks like classic Deadspin.  Similar logo.  Same writers.  Same schtick.

And honestly it's a little disappointing.  Nothing really new.  Magary making his some old poop jokes - only this time they'll charge you for it!

Been there, done that.  Deadspin had its time and its place.  Time to move on.

[Billy Hoyle]

I got a subscription when it was first announced and have enjoyed it, but have been frustrated with the site recently. The anti college athletics articles (especially Ray Ratto) are often ill informed. There is some great stuff on there, and funny articles, but some stuff that is too preachy as well while ignoring key facts (e.g. why Denver didn't sign Kaepernick when they had no QB. Hint: it wasn't because John Elway is a member of the Proud Boys)

[jficke13]

Pre-Death-of-Deadspin they had largely fallen into patterns of editorial dogma that you just came to expect.

1. NCAA is evil and must be destroyed.
2. Olympics are evil and must be destroyed.
3. Public support for stadiums is evil and must be destroyed.
4. Salary caps are evil and must be destroyed.

There are some other slightly less critically-enduring tenets of the Deadspin Faith, but you know before clicking on ANY article about one of the above topics exactly what they are going to say. The other stuff they covered is what made it interesting and worth reading.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I got a subscription when it was first announced and have enjoyed it, but have been frustrated with the site recently. The anti college athletics articles (especially Ray Ratto) are often ill informed. There is some great stuff on there, and funny articles, but some stuff that is too preachy as well while ignoring key facts (e.g. why Denver didn't sign Kaepernick when they had no QB. Hint: it wasn't because John Elway is a member of the Proud Boys)

Ray Ratto is a big fan of Ray Ratto.  Went from a somewhat endearing curmudgeon to a schtick. 

[tower912]

Sounds like 4ever

[Billy Hoyle]

Pre-Death-of-Deadspin they had largely fallen into patterns of editorial dogma that you just came to expect.

1. NCAA is evil and must be destroyed.
2. Olympics are evil and must be destroyed.
3. Public support for stadiums is evil and must be destroyed.
4. Salary caps are evil and must be destroyed.

There are some other slightly less critically-enduring tenets of the Deadspin Faith, but you know before clicking on ANY article about one of the above topics exactly what they are going to say. The other stuff they covered is what made it interesting and worth reading.

Pretty much!  And they went after the Packers hard core yesterday for their donation to the GB Police force.

[JWags85]

I got a subscription when it was first announced and have enjoyed it, but have been frustrated with the site recently. The anti college athletics articles (especially Ray Ratto) are often ill informed. There is some great stuff on there, and funny articles, but some stuff that is too preachy as well while ignoring key facts (e.g. why Denver didn't sign Kaepernick when they had no QB. Hint: it wasn't because John Elway is a member of the Proud Boys)

I saw this Defector site a few weeks ago.  It looks like classic Deadspin.  Similar logo.  Same writers.  Same schtick.

And honestly it's a little disappointing.  Nothing really new.  Magary making his some old poop jokes - only this time they'll charge you for it!

Been there, done that.  Deadspin had its time and its place.  Time to move on.

These both basically nail it. Part of the reason Deadspin in its original form died was less part of some grand corporate conspiracy,  but because sports humor is best written by people who don't openly seem to hate sports and inject political slants or editorial bias into everything.  But they refused to acknowledge that and chose to stay self righteous and lean into their dwindling fan base with a paid model.

Drew Magary used to be my absolute favorite internet writer. About a decade ago he was outrageously funny and consistent.  Then Trump seemed to break him. He's because increasingly bitter and screechy, choosing bile and venomous yelling about everything over satire and humor.  He still has his moments but he became more and more like the rest of the aggrieved writers over there.  And it's not even about his politics and more about the incessancy of it and it's one note tenor.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

These both basically nail it. Part of the reason Deadspin in its original form died was less part of some grand corporate conspiracy,  but because sports humor is best written by people who don't openly seem to hate sports and inject political slants or editorial bias into everything.  But they refused to acknowledge that and chose to stay self righteous and lean into their dwindling fan base with a paid model.

Drew Magary used to be my absolute favorite internet writer. About a decade ago he was outrageously funny and consistent.  Then Trump seemed to break him. He's because increasingly bitter and screechy, choosing bile and venomous yelling about everything over satire and humor.  He still has his moments but he became more and more like the rest of the aggrieved writers over there.  And it's not even about his politics and more about the incessancy of it and it's one note tenor.

Sadly, that isnt limited to just Magary.

[drewm88]

Loved Deadspin. Jumped on Defector right away. It's been ok. I never had an issue with their politics in the old format, but agreed they're leaning into it too much now. Will be interesting to see if they figure it out and switch something up. I used to check Deadspin a few times a day and now usually don't remember to look at Defector more than a couple times a week, even though I paid for it.

Burneko's recipes are still a highlight.

[jficke13]

These both basically nail it. Part of the reason Deadspin in its original form died was less part of some grand corporate conspiracy,  but because sports humor is best written by people who don't openly seem to hate sports and inject political slants or editorial bias into everything.  But they refused to acknowledge that and chose to stay self righteous and lean into their dwindling fan base with a paid model.

Drew Magary used to be my absolute favorite internet writer. About a decade ago he was outrageously funny and consistent.  Then Trump seemed to break him. He's because increasingly bitter and screechy, choosing bile and venomous yelling about everything over satire and humor.  He still has his moments but he became more and more like the rest of the aggrieved writers over there.  And it's not even about his politics and more about the incessancy of it and it's one note tenor.

I'm not so sure it was the political slant that was the issue. There's an audience for lefty sports fans too, and there's value in a marketplace for voices to point out things that are often overlooked (e.g. I think they were the first platform I noticed writing about how it is kinda odd that we play the national anthem before games or that NFL teams never used to make a show of standing for the anthem).

Ending up with ownership that was diametrically opposed to the political angle and voice that the platform had spent years cultivating and then getting in a pissing match with that ownership group is what killed them. I remarked when they were getting blown up that it was baffling to see capital so fundamentally misunderstand the asset they purchased and act in what amounted to a concerted effort to destroy the value of that asset.

Granted, it may be that in the time since they've been "gone" the politics would have worn increasingly thin on me, but even as someone who by and large disagreed with most of their philosophy when I was reading it, I enjoyed doing so.

[JWags85]

I'm not so sure it was the political slant that was the issue. There's an audience for lefty sports fans too, and there's value in a marketplace for voices to point out things that are often overlooked (e.g. I think they were the first platform I noticed writing about how it is kinda odd that we play the national anthem before games or that NFL teams never used to make a show of standing for the anthem).

Ending up with ownership that was diametrically opposed to the political angle and voice that the platform had spent years cultivating and then getting in a pissing match with that ownership group is what killed them. I remarked when they were getting blown up that it was baffling to see capital so fundamentally misunderstand the asset they purchased and act in what amounted to a concerted effort to destroy the value of that asset.

Granted, it may be that in the time since they've been "gone" the politics would have worn increasingly thin on me, but even as someone who by and large disagreed with most of their philosophy when I was reading it, I enjoyed doing so.

I wasn't even complaining it was too left.  Two of the most diehard sports fans I know are fervent Bernie Bro liberals.  One used to have Deadspin as his home page and introduced me to it in my early 20s.  He hasn't read regularly in years.

I was more remarking how that took precedence over anything else. Whining about leagues, or owners, or "this a**hole wealthy athlete had the nerve to complain about X" isn't illuminating or funny, it's just obnoxious. Some people probably love it I'm sure, but it certainly isn't a large sub section and certainly isn't the demo that made the site wildly popular and successful.

Ownership was a mess too. Both sides were wrong and dumb, but at least one was basing it in business and revenue perspectives. The other fundamentally didn't seem to understand how or why websites made money and instead made it a fight about morality or some righteous journalism crusade.

Also, further indicative, the Deadspin comment section used to be as funny as the article itself. Just clever, hilarious, ongoing jokes.  As the site fell apart, that got gross as well.

[MUBurrow]

I'm not so sure it was the political slant that was the issue. There's an audience for lefty sports fans too[...]

I agree with this.  But I don't think zombie deadspin can recapture the magic to be that place again.  Over its final years, deadspin started to seem like less than the sum of its parts. Staff attributed that to ownership, but that was as much correlation as causation.  I appreciate the writers' personal relationships, but its gotten to a point where those relationships get in the way of the product.  The brutal truth is that the best of their writers render the others unnecessary, but they like each other too much to admit it. And the end result was having to endure 80% of the site to get to the parts that I was actually looking forward to/proved worth it.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Apparently they are doing well.  Which is good.

https://twitter.com/drewmagary/status/1339619527236194305?s=20

[JWags85]

Apparently they are doing well.  Which is good.

https://twitter.com/drewmagary/status/1339619527236194305?s=20

FWIW, the Gizmodo group of sites were purchased for $135MM a few years ago at auction.  Deadspin was arguably the most valuable (maybe #2 behind Gizmodo) of that group.

Defector has 34K subscribers at, let's say an average of $85 a year ($8 a month, but some get a discounted rate for an annual subscription).  That's around $3MM in revenue.  Glad it's paying the bills plus some, but still kind of illuminates the point of how much the site (or it's remnants) has declined.  I fail to see their subscriber base growing all that much, especially as their top talent farms much of their time and effort to contract work at other bigger publications.  Be interested to see if it grows at all beyond just poaching the clicks from Deadspin readers.

They are their own bosses and there is something to be said for that, but I fail to see it as a "haha you corporate idiots!!!" level win like they went out on their own and are killing it.

[Billy Hoyle]

I wasn't even complaining it was too left.  Two of the most diehard sports fans I know are fervent Bernie Bro liberals.  One used to have Deadspin as his home page and introduced me to it in my early 20s.  He hasn't read regularly in years.

I was more remarking how that took precedence over anything else. Whining about leagues, or owners, or "this a**hole wealthy athlete had the nerve to complain about X" isn't illuminating or funny, it's just obnoxious. Some people probably love it I'm sure, but it certainly isn't a large sub section and certainly isn't the demo that made the site wildly popular and successful.

Ownership was a mess too. Both sides were wrong and dumb, but at least one was basing it in business and revenue perspectives. The other fundamentally didn't seem to understand how or why websites made money and instead made it a fight about morality or some righteous journalism crusade.

Also, further indicative, the Deadspin comment section used to be as funny as the article itself. Just clever, hilarious, ongoing jokes.  As the site fell apart, that got gross as well.

Defector's comment section is good. WYTS is always awesome for content and comments. But, the NCAA stuff, anything mentioning quarterbacks (they always devolve into Kaepernick love fests), or yesterday's article about the Packers donation to the City of GB made me think I'd clicked on Daily Kos instead...and I'm left of center.

[MUBurrow]

FWIW, the Gizmodo group of sites were purchased for $135MM a few years ago at auction.  Deadspin was arguably the most valuable (maybe #2 behind Gizmodo) of that group.

Defector has 34K subscribers at, let's say an average of $85 a year ($8 a month, but some get a discounted rate for an annual subscription).  That's around $3MM in revenue.  Glad it's paying the bills plus some, but still kind of illuminates the point of how much the site (or it's remnants) has declined.  I fail to see their subscriber base growing all that much, especially as their top talent farms much of their time and effort to contract work at other bigger publications.  Be interested to see if it grows at all beyond just poaching the clicks from Deadspin readers.

They are their own bosses and there is something to be said for that, but I fail to see it as a "haha you corporate idiots!!!" level win like they went out on their own and are killing it.

I don't disagree, but I think the counterpoint is the degree to which all of the writers throwing a crapfit and then walking undermined the investment value of the site.  The $135M purchase was by Univision in 2016, but already in April 2019 Great Hill bought it at a significantly lower price.  I would be willing to bet that the value of those assets has dropped even further in the past 20 months. The writers would say that by showing how they had the power to tank Gizmodo as an investment, they highlighted the risk of other similar PE acquisitions in the future.  I don't know if that's true, but I do know that the investment commoditization of the equity of every moderately successful business is a fracking plague, so I want it to be true.

[jficke13]

I don't disagree, but I think the counterpoint is the degree to which all of the writers throwing a crapfit and then walking undermined the investment value of the site.  The $135M purchase was by Univision in 2016, but already in April 2019 Great Hill bought it at a significantly lower price.  I would be willing to bet that the value of those assets has dropped even further in the past 20 months. The writers would say that by showing how they had the power to tank Gizmodo as an investment, they highlighted the risk of other similar PE acquisitions in the future.  I don't know if that's true, but I do know that the investment commoditization of the equity of every moderately successful business is a fracking plague, so I want it to be true.

Unlike a factory that builds widgets, or even say microbrewer that has a product, the editorial voice of Deadspin *was* 90+% of the value of the website and the identity the editors and writers (and their independence to do things like crap on corporate bosses, viva la revolucion!) was integral to that value. The staff's defection destroyed the site and sure they could have played nice, but the fact that they ended up in that position at all tells me that the ownership group bought something and had no clue what they owned.

That would be like someone buying Jack Daniels, shutting down the stills, and trying to sell root beer all while publicly backing a neo-temperance movement.

It's "teach it in b-school" levels of bad business.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

My recollection is that the owners bought these properties, including Deadspin, and then issued a "stick to sports" policy in hopes it would broaden their audience.  But they didn't realize that a smaller, more passionate audience was going to be more loyal to the brand, than a broader more general audience.

So they fired the editor and most the writers quit en masse.  Then Deadspin went dark for months before starting to publish again.  And they still don't allow comments on their stories, which was always half the fun, because readers rip the owners at every step.

You are right.  They didn't know what they were buying.  Didn't realize the value, and most importantly, the writers had the balls to quit and start their own thing and not just roll over on the stick to sports policy.

[drewm88]

My recollection is that the owners bought these properties, including Deadspin, and then issued a "stick to sports" policy in hopes it would broaden their audience.  But they didn't realize that a smaller, more passionate audience was going to be more loyal to the brand, than a broader more general audience.

So they fired the editor and most the writers quit en masse.  Then Deadspin went dark for months before starting to publish again.  And they still don't allow comments on their stories, which was always half the fun, because readers rip the owners at every step.

You are right.  They didn't know what they were buying.  Didn't realize the value, and most importantly, the writers had the balls to quit and start their own thing and not just roll over on the stick to sports policy.

It was more than just stick to sports. They wanted Deadspin to be more like ESPN or some other general sports site, where people would go for scores and the like. Plus a lot of bad business practices internally.

[warriorchick]

It was more than just stick to sports. They wanted Deadspin to be more like ESPN or some other general sports site, where people would go for scores and the like. Plus a lot of bad business practices internally.

Drew, is that you?  Who knew Magary was a Scooper!