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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

#41

Post by lefstathiou »

kaikai wrote: post #37

The reason this is a story is that it's calling out the bullshit reasoning of management, not that management doesn't have a right to decide the content of their media properties. Many of us have sat through meetings with leadership who are endlessly rationalizing their decisions with crappy data, and felt the frustration that comes with being able to see through the half-truths. This article is interesting because t…

Welcome to the 21st century where you can have valid reasons but face the endless threat of bad press and litigation for giving them. Almost every manager and CEO I know is afraid to give constructive feedback in employee reviews. The fact that they came up with some bs explanation with holes isn’t news to me. Imagine what the press would be if they said “I told them to do their f’n job 5x and they didn’t”

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

#42

Post by dlbucci »

I'm surprised commenters here seem to be siding with management when:

* They only bought the site about a year ago.

* They've replaced a number of women/minority executives with white, male, nepotism hires.

* The editorial mandate to "stick to sports" violates the CBA with the GMG Union, which prohibits the owners from having editorial say.

* There have been numerous complaints from both writers and commenters on the site about the decline in the quality of the content since the takeover.

* About a week ago, obnoxious, auto-playing, with-sound video ads starting covering every article, and the comments in every section complained about them. The writers made a post asking for feedback, which management removed and only then said "stick to sports".

I mean really, it just takes a quick look at the comment section of any article to see how mad the commenters have been about this issue. Oh wait, management removed the comments on Deadspin (and no other kinja site). They also drove away some of the most popular writers on the site, like Drew Magary, and that's where the complaints about the decline in quality come from. The whole thing has just been incompetent mismanagement for a long time, and as a long-time reader, has been one of the biggest bummers since Joystiq was shuttered.

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

#43

Post by rdlecler1 »

avs733 wrote: post #32
rdlecler1 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Given the multiple areas of content it would perhaps be better to look at the writers and the tone and the perspective of irreverence as the feature and, in fact, the the value. We are about to find out what is the true asset of deadspin...the name and the sports articles of the writers and their broad interests. If nothing it'll be an interesting experiment. You may not want a product, but if you bought the company…

I’m going to bet they saw an established brand and audience but a company that needed to be turned around in a number of ways, and I bet it didn’t make money before.

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

#44

Post by masonic »

basch wrote: post #31
guelo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Management can tell employees to do whatever they want, but employees can also tell management to shove it and quit. What's wrong with that?

In this case they actually cant tell them to do some things. The writers unionized, and there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted. There was obviously a lot of work that was put into protecting the writers from management. And management knew of the situation and the status quo when they bought the company. They knew they were buying people wi…

  there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted
It would be very unusual for a CBA to specify such a thing. Is the CBA public anywhere?

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

#45

Post by ivanech »

dlbucci wrote: post #42

I'm surprised commenters here seem to be siding with management when: * They only bought the site about a year ago. * They've replaced a number of women/minority executives with white, male, nepotism hires. * The editorial mandate to "stick to sports" violates the CBA with the GMG Union, which prohibits the owners from having editorial say. * There have been numerous complaints from both writers and commenters on the…

Editorial independence is section VIII in CBA [pdf]: https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/G...

This is what makes the situation special. It's in the contract.

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

#46

Post by ivanech »

masonic wrote: post #44
basch wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case they actually cant tell them to do some things. The writers unionized, and there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted. There was obviously a lot of work that was put into protecting the writers from management. And management knew of the situation and the status quo when they bought the company. They knew they were buying people wi…

there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted It would be very unusual for a CBA to specify such a thing. Is the CBA public anywhere?

This is called editorial independence, and I believe it's fairly common in journalism.

See section VIII in the CBA [pdf]: https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/G...

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

#47

Post by mobjack »

aristophenes wrote: post #21

I am largely confused about this whole discussion. Why are we trying to figure out if the Deadspin bosses are justified in whether they want their writers to write about sports related things? This isn't about free speech. Each one of the writers has the ability to write to their own blog, to tweet whatever they want. This is about some writers insisting that a company pays them money to write about whatever the writ…

It is more like if you lead a successful software project for ten years, then a new CEO comes and forces you to change the direction.

You believe that those changes would be detrimental to the product and company that you worked so hard to make a success.

The discussion is whether the CEO made a good business decision or if the writers and editors know more about what made them a success before.

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

#48

Post by msbarnett »

rancor wrote: post #9

OK. Leaving aside that the whole article kind of smells of self-justification over the approach of the LA Times itself to reporting actual news vs. opinion, there's a mathematical issue here. If Deadspin were relatively unpopular with sports fans, their non-sports content would naturally be relatively popular due to it's general audience appeal. And even if this weren't true, most fans care about their particular spo…

> the targeted audience(s) for which their advertisers pay an (assumed) premium.

Online advertising does not work this way, and has not for years. Advertisers bid on the right to show users an ad, per ad, based on all of the surveilled data known about that user. Deadspin will get the best bid price per-user regardless of what demographic the winning advertiser was targeting.

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

#49

Post by msbarnett »

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.

> Frankly, I personally don’t want politics and culture in everything I read and that can be a feature, not a bug.

So read literally any other sports publication. Why do you object to anyone’s but your tastes being catered to anywhere?

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

#50

Post by throwGuardian »

msbarnett wrote: post #49
rdlecler1 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Frankly, I personally don’t want politics and culture in everything I read and that can be a feature, not a bug. So read literally any other sports publication. Why do you object to anyone’s but your tastes being catered to anywhere?

> Why do you object to anyone’s but your tastes being catered to anywhere.

So munch this, but for the journalists. Blog on your time, in your publication of choice, DON'T FORCE, nay bully, your employer to publish your opinions on company property, after being told not to repeatedly

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