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Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

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Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#11

Post by samfbiddle »

manigandham wrote: post #5

Not sticking to sports is why they failed and needed new management and more invasive ads for revenue in the first place.

This is completely wrong. Gawker Media was a profitable, growing company until Peter Thiel wrecked it and its subsidiary sites were sold to a series of increasingly incompetent owners. Deadspin's "non-sports" articles were regularly among its most widely read.

In fact, here's a person whose job it was to sell ads for Deadspin explaining that you are incorrect: https://twitter.com/jillian_schulz/status/118967386127042969...

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#12

Post by slg »

manigandham wrote: post #9
kevinh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence for that claim?

I’m in adtech and know enough publishers. I can’t share exact numbers but readership is way down. Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading. Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well.

>Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading.

>Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well.

There is a high level of irony in these two comments considering Barstool doesn't "stick to sports" either. They just approach a lot of the same issues from the opposite direction as Deadspin.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#13

Post by samfbiddle »

xyzzyz wrote: post #7
IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #3

Here's (some of) the reasoning from (one of) the horse's mouth: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-adults-in-the-room-183...

The real and less romantic story is this: The journalists at Deadspin and its sister sites, like most journalists I know, are eager to do work that makes money; we are even willing to compromise for it, knowing that our jobs and futures rest on it. An ever-growing number of media owners, meanwhile, are so exceedingly unwilling to reckon with the particulars of their own business that they refuse to accept our eagerne…

What resources?

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#14

Post by mc32 »

slg wrote: post #10
xyzzyz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real and less romantic story is this: The journalists at Deadspin and its sister sites, like most journalists I know, are eager to do work that makes money; we are even willing to compromise for it, knowing that our jobs and futures rest on it. An ever-growing number of media owners, meanwhile, are so exceedingly unwilling to reckon with the particulars of their own business that they refuse to accept our eagerne…

Journalists aren't exactly known for being paid well. They need resources to start up an outlet and the primary place to get those resources in venture capital which would just start this entire process over again.

It depends on your ambition (goal).

Many community newspapers start with low resources and grow over time to become the voice of their community. They’re not going to become rich in most cases.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#15

Post by darrmit »

manigandham wrote: post #9
kevinh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence for that claim?

I’m in adtech and know enough publishers. I can’t share exact numbers but readership is way down. Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading. Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well.

I’m not surprised to see this given what has happened to Gizmodo. It used to be one of the few tech sites I’d check daily but it has basically just become a constant stream of global warming and left-wing propaganda that even I, as left leaning, got sick of having rammed down my throat.

Contrast that with another G/O Media site, Jalopnik, which continues to be one of my favorite sites on the Internet. The Verge also seems to have moved on mostly from trying to straddle “culture” and tech and is better for it.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#16

Post by pasquinelli »

slg wrote: post #12
manigandham wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in adtech and know enough publishers. I can’t share exact numbers but readership is way down. Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading. Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well.

>Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading. >Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well. There is a high level of irony in these two comments considering Barstool doesn't "stick to sports" either. They just approach a lot of the same issues from the opposite direction as Deadspin.

When people talk about politics they mean other people's politics. When they talk about their own politics it's just common sense.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#17

Post by xyzzyz »

slg wrote: post #10
xyzzyz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real and less romantic story is this: The journalists at Deadspin and its sister sites, like most journalists I know, are eager to do work that makes money; we are even willing to compromise for it, knowing that our jobs and futures rest on it. An ever-growing number of media owners, meanwhile, are so exceedingly unwilling to reckon with the particulars of their own business that they refuse to accept our eagerne…

Journalists aren't exactly known for being paid well. They need resources to start up an outlet and the primary place to get those resources in venture capital which would just start this entire process over again.

A content-based website is extremely cheap business to start, as far as running businesses goes. Seriously, you don't need any capital whatsoever, no offices, machines, just pay someone to set up a website. Millions of people start all kinds of businesses in this country every year, often much poorer than journalists.

The reason they don't do this is because running a content-based business is much harder than they claim it to be, and it's easy to claim things when you don't have skin in the game: when the venture-capital owned company goes under, they'll just get another job, while if they start their own business, pool up some initial capital and work for free for a few months until they make enough revenue to pay themselves reasonable salaries, they're risking much more.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#18

Post by selectodude »

manigandham wrote: post #9
kevinh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence for that claim?

I’m in adtech and know enough publishers. I can’t share exact numbers but readership is way down. Constant political stories and culture outrage doesn’t make good sports reading. Contrast this with barstool sports which is doing well.

Yes, of course.

Here's Deadspin sticking to sports in 2017 https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/a-full-transcript-of-donal...

Here's Deadspin sticking to sports in 2016 https://adequateman.deadspin.com/the-2016-hater-s-guide-to-t...

Here's Deadspin sticking to sports in 2013 http://deadsp.in/cgmoid5

2012 https://deadspin.com/what-happens-when-a-35-year-old-man-ret...

I'm done diving into the archives but that's a pretty hot take you're throwing out there.

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#19

Post by artek »

richard_mcp wrote: post #2

I like how a site with autoplay ads is reporting this.

According to WSJ [1] the issue was that the ads were autoplaying with sound on. Just auto playing by itself isn't considered intrusive by the industry.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/hostilities-rise-inside-g-o-med...

Re: Deadspin Staffers Are Quitting

#20

Post by CPLX »

xyzzyz wrote: post #7
IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #3

Here's (some of) the reasoning from (one of) the horse's mouth: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-adults-in-the-room-183...

The real and less romantic story is this: The journalists at Deadspin and its sister sites, like most journalists I know, are eager to do work that makes money; we are even willing to compromise for it, knowing that our jobs and futures rest on it. An ever-growing number of media owners, meanwhile, are so exceedingly unwilling to reckon with the particulars of their own business that they refuse to accept our eagerne…

I mean they did. The actual business we are talking about was started the way you suggest, and was then destroyed by a vindictive billionaire, and is now being (apparently) mismanaged by a bunch of other rich people.

Is your premise that the journalists have no right to be mad at what they perceive as an unjust wielding of economic power?

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