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The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

latimes.com

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Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#11

Post by rdlecler1 »

avs733 wrote: post #4
throwGuardian wrote: post #2

So unfair! If only a sports publication left it's writers alone to wander off onto non-sports related politics[1], ignoring the publisher's plan & repeatedly digressing from the job they were hired to do, the world would be a better place. [1]: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/dont-doubt-what-you-saw-wi...

Read their top ten most visited stories list [1] and tell me how many of those are 'sticking to sports.' You don't just get to assume reality...data is a thing and can be used to evaluate statements of what is true. [1] https://deadspin.com/the-top-10-most-visited-deadspin-storie... (A year I arbitrarily picked because it was on top of google)

The new owners took over this year. Not 2010. They paid for the acquisition and it’s for THEM to decide what editorial direction the publication should take, not the journalists. Frankly, I personally don’t want politics and culture in everything I read and that can be a feature, not a bug.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#12

Post by basch »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

If they have a writer that can write a good story, why wouldnt they just hand it off and publish it in a different kinja vertical? I get the "do the job we hired you for" but at the same time, I would think a pool of versatile writers, and letting your thoroughbreds run, is a better tactic than pigeonholing them to one topic (when the empire covers nearly every topic.) If a deadspin writer writes a car article, post it on jalopnik; a tech article, gizmodo; a listicle, clickhole. Kinja is already so cross polinated, i agree with management that its simpler for the reader to click sports to see sports stories. But the writers are right that they should be encouraged to write interesting articles. Despite others claiming deadspins woke politics is what gave them their identity, I dont really believe readers would care WHICH kinja property an article was posted too. If its a good, well recommended article, ill read it just the same if its on deadspin or gizmodo.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#13

Post by variaga »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Deadspin's "brand identity" _was_ that they didn't stick to sports. That's why people liked them.

Your analogy is backwards. Deadspin had a profitable pizza business ("woke sports journalism"), and the new management insisted they pivot to tacos ("just sports"). Now the original customers don't like them ("We _liked_ pizza") and they've failed to attract anyone new (since the taco lovers still have ESPN and basically every single other sports news outlet).

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#14

Post by cadlin »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

On the other hand, if you buy a business entirely dependent on human capital, then proceed to instigate a mass resignation, there is no amount of spin that adds up to anything other than boneheaded decision making.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#15

Post by Traster »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Let's turn it around and think about tech, Google amazed people with their 20% time. 20% of your time to do wha you want to do - it kept engineers motivated and spawned new ideas. It was a fantastic recruiting tool too. If you stick someone in a box and tell them they're never getting out, guess what? They're going to lose motivation. Pretty much one of the fundamentals of tech is getting engineers motivated. A motivated engineer is 1000x more effective than a great, but bored, engineer. Why can't people realise this pattern can be generalised.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#16

Post by papln »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Unfortunately choice of example. Pizza Hut does sell tacos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum!_Brands

https://www.google.com/search?q=joint+pizza+hut+taco+bell&tb...

As does Jack-in-the-Box

https://www.jackinthebox.com/food/taco-and-sides/two-tacos

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#17

Post by TeMPOraL »

Traster wrote: post #15
tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Let's turn it around and think about tech, Google amazed people with their 20% time. 20% of your time to do wha you want to do - it kept engineers motivated and spawned new ideas. It was a fantastic recruiting tool too. If you stick someone in a box and tell them they're never getting out, guess what? They're going to lose motivation. Pretty much one of the fundamentals of tech is getting engineers motivated. A motiv…

And the generalization would be... give people some autonomy in their work, even if sandboxed (the 20% was expected to not be completely random)? If so, it does sound right.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#18

Post by watwut »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #11
avs733 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read their top ten most visited stories list [1] and tell me how many of those are 'sticking to sports.' You don't just get to assume reality...data is a thing and can be used to evaluate statements of what is true. [1] https://deadspin.com/the-top-10-most-visited-deadspin-storie... (A year I arbitrarily picked because it was on top of google)

The new owners took over this year. Not 2010. They paid for the acquisition and it’s for THEM to decide what editorial direction the publication should take, not the journalists. Frankly, I personally don’t want politics and culture in everything I read and that can be a feature, not a bug.

If I understand it right, this was only publication that mixed culture and politics to sport.

All others haven't done that and kept it sport only. Which means there are multiple publications available you would like, whether this one exists or not, and is read by people who are not you.

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#19

Post by Angostura »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Are you suggesting Pizza Hut should stop selling salads and drinks?

Re: The math of media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports’ doesn’t add up

#20

Post by dandelo53 »

tracker1 wrote: post #6

G/O Media has several brands that already do woke journalism. How many do they need for this? How many concentrate on sports exclusively? To use a sports metaphore, it's about zone coverage. As I said on prior posts... Deadspin should stick to sports for the same reason Pizza Hut doesn't sell Tacos. Coverage across brand identities. Even if Tacos may make more money than Pizza in aggregate, they aren't there to sell…

Cross pollination provides diversity. It's not always a good thing, but you make it sound like it is something to be avoided.

Seems like a good way to superficially limit opportunity with that line of reasoning.

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