Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Deadspin's entire editorial staff has now resigned; G/O Media says the company is recruiting new staff — Deadspin is dead, for the time being. — The site is now without any editors or writers — after a staff revolt that erupted this week when parent company G/O Media demanded …
Discussion:
@corybooker, @alangoldsher, New York Times, Deadspin, @alangoldsher, @alangoldsher, @redletterdave, @kateconger, @lppny, @benhoffmannyt, Sports Media Watch, @kfcbarstool, @bydavidgardner, @brittanyadesso, @erinscafe, @mattdpearce, @laurawags, @dagotron, @bendwalsh, @offbeatorbit, @owenthomas, @tyelland, @nicole_cliffe, @emmaroller, @lppny, @jimwindolf, @michaelsocolow, The Wrap and gen.medium.com
Discussion:
Cory Booker / @corybooker: Proud of @gmgunion for defending independent journalism. Outlets like Deadspin, Jezebel and The Root provide a perspective that is too often missing from mainstream outlets. We can't afford to lose that perspective. https://twitter.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: Side note: Sorry to come off as a wuss, but all of these mean tweets made me super-sad. The second result of today is that I'm not going to mean-tweet anymore. 🙁
Katie Robertson / New York Times: Deadspin's Last Staff Member Quits. But Deadspin Is Not Dead, the Boss Says.
Diana Moskovitz / Deadspin: Thank You — I had a master plan for today, but it did not go quite as planned.
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: Color me naive, but I had no idea this would move so many people, that you were all this passionate. Not to be all woe-is-me, but in my 20-plus years as a freelancer, I never had ANY significant support from colleagues.
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: That's my personal experience. That's my reality. Former Deadspin writers should be thrilled that their community has their back. If I'd ever had that kind of support, I probably would've looked at the opportunity much differently.
Dave Smith / @redletterdave: Reminder to NOT join Deadspin unless you want to experience what @AlanGoldsher felt today (He did the right thing in the end and I'm happy with his response) https://twitter.com/...
Kate Conger / @kateconger: really did not think that the death of independent media would become a 2020 campaign issue https://twitter.com/...
Luis Paez-Pumar / @lppny: And so, our watch has ended. Deadspin was a good website. Deadspin Forever. https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Benjamin Hoffman / @benhoffmannyt: A good blog, last officially helmed by Dave McKenna, steered into the storm by a brave Diana Moskovitz whose colleagues had escaped on life boats. RIP, Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
KFC / @kfcbarstool: This is so so sad. This dude was bullied into giving up his paycheck. By a bunch of fans and ex employees who are throwing a tantrum. But Barstool readers are the fans who harass people, right? 🙄🙄 https://twitter.com/...
David Gardner / @bydavidgardner: Man makes mistake. Man apologizes for mistake. Man is forgiven for mistake. Am I on Bizarro Twitter today? Can I stay here? https://twitter.com/...
@brittanyadesso: My mind is blown by both the courage of the deadspin staff and the fact that the owners fucked up so badly that the entire staff told them to go to hell https://twitter.com/...
@erinscafe: “We've got quite a number of recruiters out there pounding the pavement, trying to find great people,” Mr. Spanfeller said in an interview Friday. “We don't just want to get any old person — we want to get good people.” lol ok but do good people want you https://www.nytimes.com/...
Laura Wagner / @laurawags: Paul Maidment is now unpublishing old Deadspin blogs and republishing them with no editor's note. @BillBradley3 is a wonderful writer and he is not a scab.
Ben Walsh / @bendwalsh: despite what you've heard from leading columnists, a sincere, thoughtful, mature reaction to public criticism is totally possible. this is great! https://twitter.com/...
Ashley Reese / @offbeatorbit: Made a statement before Elizabeth Warren........ https://twitter.com/...
Owen Thomas / @owenthomas: Is this really @nytimes house style? “Ms. Greenwell, who recently worked as an advice columnist for The New York Times, posted a blog in August” https://www.nytimes.com/... (A blog is an entire website. A blog post is a post on a blog. One publishes a post.) cc @anildash
Deadspin Tactical Defence Committee / @tyelland: listening, learning from what we hear, and joining in solidarity when challenged to? we absolutely do love to see it!! ✊ alan and deadspin https://twitter.com/...
Emma Roller / @emmaroller: this takes maturity! let's remember who the real enemies are in all this 🙂 https://twitter.com/...
Luis Paez-Pumar / @lppny: Talked to the New York Times about the simple truth: Deadspin dot com might live on, but that's just a URL. The people that made Deadspin what it was are gone, and there's no replacing that. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Michael Socolow / @michaelsocolow: I find it incredible [which just shows how old I am] that Mad magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Deadspin all basically ended in 2019.
Kyle Wagner / gen.medium.com: Deadspin, of All Places
RELATED:
Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:
Deadspin is the latest site to undergo “The Mavening”, where owners hollow out trusted outlets, a trend that has been particularly deadly for sportswriting — Deadspin staffers resigned this week after a dispute with management. Like so many other publications, the future will bring an undead version of the site.
Discussion:
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: Yikes G/O Media just released a statement criticizing the traffic on non-sports Deadspin stories: “While amusing, our readers haven't actually come to Deadspin for stories like ‘Classic Rock, Ranked,’ or 'You're Goddamn Right It's Layering Season,' or 'It's OK to Logoff.' ” https://twitter.com/...
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: stories on ANY topic go viral when they are smartly written by smart people leading other people to actively seek them out to read and share, not because “baseball is sport that america likes therefore everyone in america will read the baseball story”
Frank Pasquale / @frankpasquale: The new citizen journalism: Trustworthy publications are “hollowed out and refilled with unpaid ‘community’ contributors...who [won't] challenge editorial imperatives or productivity quotas that generate useless, often-inaccurate content” https://slate.com/...
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: furthermore the barometer of a good story should not be how many fucking clicks it gets because all of the metrics that determine success on the backend are totally made up :) any everyone knows it :) anyway has anyone ever just considered going viral to save the industry?
Nisha Chittal / @nishachittal: “Trustworthy brand-name publications are being hollowed out and refilled with unpaid “community” contributors or low-paid, less experienced professionals who don't have the stature to challenge... quotas that generate useless, often-inaccurate content.” https://slate.com/...
Seth Maxon / @sethmaxon: “The truly messed-up thing about this is not that a business would try to cut costs and make money in a destructive way: It's that it can work, because *people keep reading the articles.* ” Read @BenMathisLilley about why there's so much garbage. https://slate.com/...
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: I look at all of the news about Deadpsin and remember a conversation in which an editor stood on a chair in a full newsroom and said, “the new strategy is that everything we write just has to go viral” and then stepped down from the chair and he was totally serious
Tom Gara / @tomgara: (It's easy to see the zombie phenomena in media, but it's everywhere in the economy, dying workhorses like Sears or Toys R Us getting one last spurt of cash whipped out of them while they can still stand)
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: Billionaires who buy websites are especially primed with this level of thinking, truly believing going into a newsroom to say: “how about you just write stuff that millions of people will read” is a) very easy to accomplish and b) something that newsrooms never thought to do
Ben Mathis-Lilley / Slate: Let's All Stop Mindlessly Clicking and Sharing Zombie Links
BJ Bethel / @bjbetheltweets: Putting Deadspin in the same category as Sports Illustrated is stupid. https://twitter.com/...
Greg O'Brien / @gregobr: “Mavened publications want traffic but not thoughts.” https://twitter.com/...
Blake Weir / @blakeweirfpn: The problem with these pieces is that they ultimately ignore the fact that these writers will be replaced by writers. Their problem seems to be that the new writers aren't approved by the highbrow section of twitter which appointed itself to judge who and who isn't worthy. https://twitter.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: Zombie sites: “Trustworthy brand-name publications are being hollowed out and refilled with unpaid ‘community’ contributors or low-paid, less experienced professionals who don't have the stature to challenge editorial imperatives or productivity quotas.” https://www.theringer.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: Great piece on the rise of the zombie media - Newsweek, Playboy, soon Deadspin - carcasses of once living publications, now ruled by the undead https://www.theringer.com/...
Jawn Gonzalez / @johngonzalez: “For them, the worst thing a website could generate is a mild headache—mild and major headaches being pretty much the point of journalism.” https://twitter.com/...
Luke Epplin / @lukeepplin: Well, this is a depressing but I suppose necessary read for anyone who works in the media. https://www.theringer.com/...
@niemanlab: “The Mavening is the way media overlords taunt readers by forcing them to watch as they drag around the corpse of a beloved friend.” https://www.theringer.com/...
Rafat Ali / @rafat: This is well written & analysed, I like the term. BUT important to say: the Mavened media won't succeed, maybe they'll through financial engineering (I doubt that too), but they won't have any loyal audience or be a business success, that I can be sure of. https://www.theringer.com/...
Megan Greenwell / @megreenwell:
Former Deadspin EIC Megan Greenwell says the site no longer employs a single writer or editor — And with that, it's over. Deadspin no longer employs a single writer or editor. I am gutted but so very proud of this group of people. Deadspin was a good website.
Discussion:
@barry, Deadspin, @jillian_schulz, @mckinneykelsey, Los Angeles Times, @david_j_roth, NPR, Nieman Lab, @timmarchman, Vox, @kimjnews, @dianamoskovitz, @bjanosch, @albertburneko, @xpangler, @bubbaprog, @palewire, @rauchway, @alexknobel, @thetomzone, @jatayler, @ashleyfeinberg, @michaelroston, @erikwemple, Washington Post, @lexialex, @samanthamvb, @priyakkumar, @theisen95, @cpoff, @dianamoskovitz, @ryanlcooper, @lukeoneil47, @lukeoneil47, @lukeoneil47, @mollieebryant, @mathewi, @justin_ling, @byjoelanderson, @ericgeller, @emptyseatspics, @jeremymbarr, @davezatz, @lindaholmes, @thrasherxy, @nick422, @dreamoforgonon, @drewmagary, @geedee215, @ryanlcooper, @maxwelltani, Redstate, Vanity Fair, @maxkennerly, @patrick_hruby, HuffPost, ABC17NEWS, @flyingwithsara, Axios, @franzkela, @bubbaprog and @kvanvalkenburg
Discussion:
Barry Petchesky / @barry: @maxwelltani FYI this is demonstrably false. According to our analytics department, since the start of the year, non-sports posts have on average double the traffic of sports posts.
Diana Moskovitz / Deadspin: Transactions, Nov. 1 — This the final Deadspin transaction before relegation.
Jill Schulz / @jillian_schulz: aside from giz, deadspin was always one of the easiest sites to pitch and sell. we rarely sold campaigns because the advertiser wanted to align with “sports”. they wanted the audience and the lifestyle sections (foodspin, adequate man, the concourse)
Kelsey Mckinney / @mckinneykelsey: Just now I resigned my position at Deadspin today along with many of my colleagues. I have been here only five months but they have been some of the best of my career and I will miss it deeply.
Kim Janssen / Los Angeles Times: News Analysis: I checked the math of the media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports.’ It doesn't add up
David Roth / @david_j_roth: I'm putting up some last stories that I edited at Deadspin, all submitted and edited before today. I want to get these writers paid and read. All these stories are good and I feel lucky to have worked on them. Here is one, by @OAlmasri: https://deadspin.com/...
Brakkton Booker / NPR: After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: A sad reading list about the end of Deadspin
Tim Marchman / @timmarchman: This is completely untrue. Honestly, if the editors went just by the data, Deadspin would have been a lifestyle and politics site with a sports subsite mostly dedicated to football. https://twitter.com/...
Alexia Fernández Campbell / Vox: What the mass resignations at Deadspin tell us about work in America
Kim Janssen / @kimjnews: I was skeptical of the September audience data that G/O Media cited in telling @deadspin's staff to “stick to sports”, so @palewire scraped all the audience data from Deadspin's September posts, and I analyzed it. THREAD https://www.latimes.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / @dianamoskovitz: I wrote a very sappy goodbye post. In some ways, it feel like the least-Deadspinny thing I could do. But it felt right. https://deadspin.com/...
Brian Janosch / @bjanosch: This story is incredible, and more people should be paying attention. The early promise of the internet is being destroyed every day. There is no longer room for outlets of collective expression. You're an influencer in the pocket of basically two companies, or you're nobody. https://twitter.com/...
Turkbert Cransauceko / @albertburneko: monkeying with the time stamps on blogs to A) make it look like you have fresh blogs when no self-respecting writer on earth will write for you, and B) get dunks at your expense off the front page without deleting them, is the most clownshoe-ass shit imaginable https://twitter.com/...
Todd Spangler / @xpangler: G/O Media says it will keep @Deadspin going & is in the process of hiring new editorial staff after the entire team quit in protest http://bit.ly/34pY1ea via @variety
Timothy Burke / @bubbaprog: .@fischsticks wrote a script to do this and came up with the same results. The great thing about Kinja—and GED, the CMS that came before it—is that both pageviews and unique visitors for every post are public. Read this whole thread for more info. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Welsh / @palewire: The scraper and raw data used to write this story are available as open-source software https://github.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Alex Knobel / @alexknobel: Among (many) other things, I'll miss that Deadspin seemed to let Dave McKenna write about whatever local story he wanted.
@thetomzone: You know, I could have sworn this blog- which is titled Transactions, Nov. 1 - wasn't posted on October 1. It must be a mistake on my part- I have a real bad memory- because I can't see any other reason its date would be adjusted, bumping it off the page. https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jatayler: Do these herbs really think they can defeat the most online people who have ever existed? https://twitter.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: Just the most phenomenal morons, absolutely incredible https://twitter.com/...
Michael Roston / @michaelroston: A lot of journalists are wary of getting too caught up in the analytics about their stories. But this thread shows a good reason why you should always know what's up with your stories — being able to counter a narrative about audience data generated by someone with an agenda. https://twitter.com/...
Erik Wemple / @erikwemple: Dave McKenna, one of the best storytellers in all of journalism (and a former colleague of mine), formally resigned from Deadspin today. He told me this moments ago: https://twitter.com/...
Ben Strauss / Washington Post: Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone
Lexi Alexander / @lexialex: I stand with the courageous writers who resigned from @Deadspin because they want to do their job with integrity...and thanks David, for this beautiful article about Al Wihdat and Palestinian refugees https://twitter.com/...
Samantha Melbourneweaver / @samanthamvb: Our @latimes data guy @kimjnews checked the Deadspin traffic numbers that G/O Media cited when telling their staff to stick to sports. They were...less than correct. https://www.latimes.com/...
Priya Krishnakumar / @priyakkumar: telling a very disprovable lie to a bunch of pissed off reporters is not the move *i* would have advised but i guess that's what makes jim spanfeller such a smarty!!! https://twitter.com/...
Lauren Theisen / @theisen95: megan de facto returning to her rightful role as our leader has been the best thing about these past few days https://twitter.com/...
Curt Poff / @cpoff: The @Deadspin death throes are spectacular and sad. Sorry to see it go. Congrats to Dave McKenna in the one-day EIC promotion!
Diana Moskovitz / @dianamoskovitz: Programming note: My Kinja access has been revoked. I apologize for any and all spelling and grammar errors, as I cannot fix them. From here on out, all content published on Deadspin is not us. I hope we sent out Deadspin right. We did our best.
Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper: baffling that there are so many eager little toadies and lickspittles out there, but that's the world we live in it seems
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: The schadenfreude the other sports blog is showcasing over all this could not be more illustrative of why Deadspin was appealing to people like me in the first place. Those guys dream about being the boss while Deadspin's general ethos was fuck the bosses.
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: And the reason you're seeing so many people talk about finding friends and a community through it is that that sort of thinking was a revelation not very long ago. Wait, I can like sports and not love to kiss cops and respect my boss?
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: My last Deadspin thought is it was one of the only places to recognize that sports are so good but everything about them — the cursed jingoism, red-assed coaches who think they're troops, corruption, fealty to authority, capitalism excesses, etc — were shit.
Mollie Bryant / @mollieebryant: There's still technically a staffer there - it's his last day and I think these posts are probably one last 🖕 https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Mathew Ingram / @mathewi: If I didn't know better, I would think Deadspin management either doesn't know how to operate its own CMS, or forgot to revoke access to it https://deadspin.com/...
Justin Ling / @justin_ling: “As the last editor left with access to our work systems, I'm promoting Dave McKenna to editor-in-chief of Deadspin...McKenna has graciously agreed to accept his new position until the end of the day (this is his last day).” https://deadspin.com/...
Joel D. Anderson / @byjoelanderson: If there's any silver lining to this sad and wholly avoidable sequence of events, it's that it thoroughly exposed the execs of G/O Media as a team of incompetents. https://twitter.com/...
Eric Geller / @ericgeller: Sady day for honest journalism and informed discourse. https://twitter.com/...
@emptyseatspics: Long-time Deadspin fans and readers are gonna view @JimSpanfeller and his cohorts the same way sports fans view the owners who moved their favorite teams https://twitter.com/...
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: I'm sure, like Mic dot com before it, Deadspin will soon employ a ghost staff of like 2 or 3 people writing 10 clickbait posts per day https://twitter.com/...
Linda Holmes / @lindaholmes: People often say nothing depreciates faster than a new car, but a media outlet you buy and don't respect goes to zero much faster. I will miss all these nuts and their joyful, vibrant, weird adventures. On to the next. May they all find places to write that like good writing. https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Steven W. Thrasher / @thrasherxy: The agony and pride and pain and wonder of solidarity is a thing to behold. Thank you, Deadspin (which is a collection of writers and editors, not an owned brand) for teaching us to the very end, and thank for your service. Godspeed. https://twitter.com/...
Nick Casserole / @nick422: I keep going back to what @wyshynski said (paraphrasing), “Buying Deadspin and telling it to stick to sports is like buying Cheesecake Factory and getting rid of everything but cheesecake.” Long live Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
Connor Goldsmith / @dreamoforgonon: Can someone get these people some money, please https://twitter.com/...
Lando Callipygian / @geedee215: Deadspin was a profitable, very influential site doing the thing it was already doing. these dudes came in and thought they knew better, and picked a bunch of dumb, unnecessary fights with the workers who made it work and knew why it worked. Now it's gone. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper: what an incredible waste. private equity goons are the most childish, thin-skinned little babies alive https://twitter.com/...
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: According to internal stats I've seen, on average, posts on The Concourse earn 108% more than Deadspin posts. As of earlier this year, the average PVs per post for The Concourse was 129k vs 62k for Deadspin's main page. https://twitter.com/...
Streiff / Redstate: Deadspin Writers Walk out Because Company Management Refuses to Let the Inmates Run the Asylum Anymore
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair: “They're Gonna Give These Fuckers a Run for Their Money”: Deadspin Is Zombified …
Max Kennerly / @maxkennerly: And there it is. Deadspin's management nuked non-sports posts contrary to their own business interests. It was just a personal preference. This happens in business far more often than we admit, particularly when the owners are so rich it's all play money. https://twitter.com/...
Patrick Hruby / @patrick_hruby: Good piece, the important backdrops to this are: 1) private equity's legal bust out business model; 2) the largely phony digital advertising economy https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Grenoble / HuffPost: Deadspin Is No More After Mass Staff Exodus: Former EIC
Sara Nelson / @flyingwithsara: Rather than “stick to sports” the writers at Deadspin decided to stick together. ✊ https://twitter.com/...
Kendall Baker / Axios: Deadspin is dead after refusing to “stick to sports”
@franzkela: 95% of Philly twitter - me included - is just doing a lesser version of Dan McQuade https://twitter.com/...
Timothy Burke / @bubbaprog: I wanted Dan McQuade to be part of Deadspin for years before he agreed to join us. His contributions have been marvelous, both in video and with the written word, and I'm fortunate to have had the time to work alongside him. https://twitter.com/...
Kevin Van Valkenburg / @kvanvalkenburg: A lot about this statement is annoying, but I'd like to touch on one thing in particular. It's evidence G/O Media goofs don't get how you actually build a community of readers that actually wants to return & (wait for it) perhaps see your ads. They just want empty viral traffic. https://twitter.com/...
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap:
Deadspin got a new freelance contributor, Alan Goldsher, on Friday, but then he quickly quit too following backlash to his tweet announcing his new gig — By Friday, every editor and writer was gone from Deadspin, but the sports-culture site chugged along, sort of, by posting previously-submitted contributor content.
Discussion:
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: I've listened to the room, and I'm out of Deadspin. I hear what you guys are saying, and I respect it. This clearly wasn't a good idea, and I appreciate that I was pointed in the right direction.
Robert Silverman / The Daily Beast: Deadspin ‘Scab’ Alan Goldsher Tells All
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: So you know that the blog post that went up today after @deadspin's entire staff quit? It was not assigned by G/O, did not undergo an editorial process with the freelance writer & went online largely untouched from the draft that was filed early Friday. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Vincent Bevins / @vinncent: “Yes, more people have now publicly ditched Deadspin than were even on its staff when the week began.” https://www.thewrap.com/...
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: Honestly, the most surprising part was that after getting dogpiled people on this website were genuinely kind to Alan Goldsher. (The least surprising part was that driving away an incredibly talented staff for no reason at all would have adverse effects.) https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: The shit keeps coming, but now, there's WAY more positivity, which is awesome. Thanks!
Craig Goldstein / @cdgoldstein: genuinely thank you for this decision
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: but if you're using this as an excuse to a) dance on the grave of the old staff or b) encourage craven bootlicking, here's who your're siding with: the sexual harassment blog and a plagiarist who runs a white nationalist blog https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: And thanks to you and the (heretofore unknown to me) writing community for schooling me.
Dave Hogg / @stareagle: It is brutal in the freelance world. I'm out there too. But you're making the right call. Respect.
Adam Weinstein / @adamweinstein: I used to beat myself up over my shortcomings as a worker, publishing professional and manager of people. But then I read this https://twitter.com/...
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: Owning, and how you react to, the error in judgment here is the bigger sign of character than the misstep made in the first place. I think this is really big, and really genuine, cheers man
Jonathan Jones / @jjones9: initial move was very bad. this move is very good. hope people won't be shitty to you now and into the future for an error you eventually realized and tried to correct
Karl Bode / @karlbode: it's the right call and kudos for listening
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: i'm sure you're still going to get a lot of shit but this is genuinely good, thank you!
Rat King / @mikeisaac: congrats on being good now
Ryan Phillips / The Big Lead: Deadspin's First Replacement Writer Posts One Story, Immediately Quits
Andrew Bucholtz / Awful Announcing: Alan Goldsher's Deadspin tenure lasted less than an hour
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap: Every Deadspin Writer and Editor Is Now Gone
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: G/O Media is in advanced talks to sell satire site ClickHole to game company Cards Against Humanity for less than $1M, amid Deadspin resignations — About 20 writers and editors at former Gawker Media sports site walk out — The sports website Deadspin lost all of its editorial staff …
Discussion:
@leffjakin: On the one hand, I often like what the Cards Against Humanity guys do with their money. On the other hand, their idea of “humor” sucks. And separating ClickHole from The Onion is just wrong. https://twitter.com/...
Nicholas Jackson / @nbj914: Pivot to board games. (G/O Media in talks to sell Clickhole to Cards Against Humanity for under $1 million.) https://twitter.com/...
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: New: Jim Spanfeller is in talks to sell @ClickHole to Cards Against Humanity amid Deadspin crisis. W/@lalpert1 https://www.wsj.com/...
Rani Molla / @ranimolla: Death knell pic.twitter.com/zUdR0LHUJV
Drew Magary:
Drew Magary, “cheerfully profane sports blogger at-large”, resigns from Deadspin
Drew Magary, “cheerfully profane sports blogger at-large”, resigns from Deadspin
Discussion:
Drew Magary / @drewmagary: I resigned from Deadspin this morning. That was a fun time you and me had there all those years, wasn't it? Let's do it again sometime.
Michael Serazio / Washington Post: Deadspin died just like it lived. The sports world will be worse off without it.
Scott Detrow / @scottdetrow: So sad to see this disintegration of Deadspin. Was talking to @Alex_Roarty about this: almost every important cultural sports website has melted away, replaced by junky clickholes & league-controlled apps. https://drewmagary.kinja.com/ ...
Craig Meyer / @craigmeyerpg: It's so goddamn sad, disappointing and frustrating to see these ghouls who have no idea what they're doing buying these websites only to destroy them https://drewmagary.kinja.com/ ...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: Even self-interest and greed don't explain events at @Deadspin. Seemed to be about hurt feelings more than anything else. The dudes with capital just could not get over the fact that the writers knew more than them about the property. So they wrecked it. https://newrepublic.com/...
Brian Moritz / Sports Media Guy: Deadspin, metrics, and the soul of journalism.
Seth D. Michaels / @sethdmichaels: the best-case, generous explanation is that the new owners were incredibly bad at their jobs. but it feels more like they bought the place with the express intention of stopping it from doing the thing it does. https://twitter.com/...
Andrew P. Collins / @andrewpcollins: “It's been a good home. It bursts into flames roughly every four months, but that's the risk you take when you're firing off takes that are just THAT hot.” https://twitter.com/...
J. Escobedo Shepherd / @jawnita: i love you @drewmagary. thank you for letting me host the Deadspin Awards red carpet for 3 years and letting me ask a bunch of rando pro sports guys (Giants?? Jets?? idk) who they were wearing https://drewmagary.kinja.com/ ...
David Roth / @david_j_roth: And here's the last Deadcast to sail under that flag, and some stuff about what's in it. https://deadspin.com/...
Dave Winer / @davewiner: Deadspin's Public Execution Reveals A Media Industry Dying From The Inside. https://www.huffpost.com/...
Jacobin / @jacobinmag: In an often barren media landscape, Deadspin was an oasis of editorial independence and irreverence. So its ultra-rich owners killed it. https://jacobinmag.com/... @alexnpress
Jack Crosbie / @jscros: the most fucked up thing about all this g/o media shit is that now we'll never get a chance to avenge our bullshit loss against the hated vice dot com in media softball
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: samer is all these things but MUCH more importantly https://www.youtube.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Marc Tracy / New York Times:
How Deadspin imploded after a long buildup of resentment between journalists and new bosses, with almost entire staff resigning by Thursday
How Deadspin imploded after a long buildup of resentment between journalists and new bosses, with almost entire staff resigning by Thursday
Discussion:
@berniesanders, @david_j_roth, @maxwelltani, @bobsaietta, @labuzamovies, Slate, @dhm, @domcosentino, Rolling Stone, @harrymccracken, @sopandeb, Axios, @bruce_arthur, @caitlin__kelly, @libbycwatson, @molly_knight, Mediaite, @stribsports, @david_j_roth, @jackmirkinson, @mikeisaac, @janesports, @ashleyfeinberg, @bubbaprog, @lubchansky, @danhanzus, @bobbybigwheel, @kevincooney, @megreenwell, @connor_j_hughes, @tomgara, @walldo, @justinjm1, @marcatracy, @dianamoskovitz, Poynter and @jeremymbarr
Discussion:
Bernie Sanders / @berniesanders: I stand with the former @Deadspin workers who decided not to bow to the greed of private equity vultures like @JimSpanfeller. This is the kind of greed that is destroying journalism across the country, and together we are going to take them on.
David Roth / @david_j_roth: I've tendered my resignation from Deadspin. You can listen to the Deadcast if you want to learn more about why, or you can ask me in a few days or something.
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: Jim Spanfeller sent an email to G/O staff this afternoon in which he doubled down on his claims about Deadspin's traffic, blamed the dropped Farmers ad campaign on the “amount of press” it received, and (again) mocked several recent non-sports Deadspin posts.
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: Also, the freelancer has no idea how much he might be paid, b/c G/O Media never brought it up. The Paul Maidment era at @Deadspin is off to a great start! https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Peter Labuza / @labuzamovies: I'm usually convinced that my parents' failure to understand anything about the last five years of politics from CNN brain rot was a lost case but the only articles I sent them to read was David on The Big Wet President, the only astute reading on this subject. Deadspin forever. https://twitter.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / Slate: The Media-Sensational Rise and Fall of “Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb”
Dan McQuade / @dhm: Deadspin's new owners wouldn't publish my Wildwood boardwalk t-shirt column this summer. I should have quit months ago, instead of just now.
Dom Cosentino / @domcosentino: I just quit, too. Deadspin was a good website.
Tessa Suart / Rolling Stone: Bernie Is Disgusted by Obscene Sneaker Prices
Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken: An editor who runs a publication by giving orders has failed even before everyone quits. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Sopan Deb / @sopandeb: This is hilarious. Monty Python-level stuff. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Dan Primack / Axios: Three thoughts from Bernie Sanders' take on Deadspin
Bruce Arthur / @bruce_arthur: There will be nobody left by the end of the day. Roth is the best writer on Trump there is, and just a marvellous writer in all. Goodnight, Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
Caitlin Kelly / @caitlin__kelly: David is the best, and such an essential writer for this moment. Even more important, he has such a big heart and cares so much about the people he works with. His level of recall for obscure baseball trivia on the other hand is gross and unnatural. I am not afraid to say this. https://twitter.com/...
@libbycwatson: we need someone to pay david a good amount of money to keep writing about trump, because he's the only person whose writing about trump is worth reading. no one else understands that man's minestrone brain like david does. https://twitter.com/...
Molly Knight / @molly_knight: I will subscribe (pay) to whatever publication hires this man the minute it's announced. https://twitter.com/...
Caleb Ecarma / Mediaite: Fox's Charles Gasparino Dances on Deadspin's Grave: Writers Next Jobs Will be ‘Baristas at Starbucks’
@stribsports: In a lot of ways, @Deadspin — famously dedicated to “Sports News Without Access, Favor, Or Discretion” — provides a perfect snap shot of the evolution of digital media and discourse. @RandBall on the site's demise. http://strib.mn/2WtV2OZ
David Roth / @david_j_roth: I'm going to log off for a bit, but I want to thank everyone I worked with, all of whom I consider friends and admire immensely, and everyone who commented on the site, all of whom I consider to be my personal attorneys. I'm so proud to have been a part of the thing you all made.
Jack Mirkinson / @jackmirkinson: Splinter was a good website Deadspin was a good website Can October 2019 be over please
Rat King / @mikeisaac: the venn diagram of twitter subcultures this speaks to is basically a perfect circle https://twitter.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: bernie, please, god, tweet out the herb post https://twitter.com/...
Timothy Burke / @bubbaprog: I arrived at Deadspin not knowing a thing about blogging. And almost everything I know about it now, I learned from Dom. His presence was an incredible influence, as was the impression he made through his resolution throughout the Penn State scandal. I owe him an incredible debt. https://twitter.com/...
@lubchansky: one of my fondest early online memories was getting approval on a joke i wrote to be a deadspin commenter back when that was a thing you needed in like 2005(?) anyways quitting a job on principle is brave and hard, RIP to another good website, we continue to live in hell
Dan Hanzus / @danhanzus: Dom is a great NFL writer. Deadspin had so much talent on its roster and mgmt absolutely boffed it. Hard to believe. https://twitter.com/...
@bobbybigwheel: One of the best football writers there is and the most yinzer dude I've ever met https://twitter.com/...
Kevin Cooney / @kevincooney: Damn proud to have been this man's colleague and friend for over a decade. An incredible reporter who should be hired somewhere ASAP https://twitter.com/...
Megan Greenwell / @megreenwell: Dom is football writers' favorite football writer because he knows absolutely everything about the NFL world and cuts through the bullshit better than anyone. Editing him is a dream. https://twitter.com/...
Connor Hughes / @connor_j_hughes: One of the most ridiculously-talented people I've met in this business. Also an OK guy. No doubt in my mind this dude lands on his feet. https://twitter.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: Deadspin was so special in so many ways, but an underrated part of it was its success on pure metrics alone: a staff of 20, with 20 million monthly unique users. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Brandon Wall / @walldo: “Shaken by the editor's departure, Deadspin staff members retreated to a nearby Planet Hollywood in Times Square for a drink” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Justin Miller / @justinjm1: Solidarity is a rarely used term because it is a rarely exercised virtue these days. Yesterday it was, in full. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Marc Tracy / @marcatracy: My ⏰🕰 of the past week at Deadspin, with “HELP US” written in (fake) blood, a nostalgia trip to The Magician, and [expletive] https://www.nytimes.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / @dianamoskovitz: When the T-shirt blogger goes, you know it's time to go. I will miss you (and the T-shirts) horribly! But I'm so glad we got to work together. I really am.
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
An explanation of “data voids” in search, based on a Data & Society report, and how understanding them is vital for journalists especially amid breaking news — One day fifteen long years ago, in 2004, some SEO consultants decided to have a contest to determine quién …
Discussion:
Michael Golebiewski, danah boyd / Data & Society: Data Voids — WHERE MISSING DATA CAN EASILY BE EXPLOITED
Reuters:
Sources: CFIUS has launched a review of ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, as TikTok didn't seek clearance from CFIUS during the acquisition — NEW YORK/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance …
Discussion:
New York Times, @mikeisaac, Politico, @kenroth, Gizmodo, @privacyproject, @silvermanjacob, @marcorubio, Tubefilter, Financial Times, @matthewstoller, @tomgara, @oneunderscore__, Senator Chuck Schumer, Ad Age, The Wrap, Breitbart, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, The Hill, The Guardian, Variety, The Verge, New York Post and CNET, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Rat King / @mikeisaac: Tiktok — the wildly popular social network owned and operated by Chinese company Bytedance — is under US NatSec review (matched reuters good scoop) w/@jacknicas https://www.nytimes.com/...
Michael J. Socolow / Politico: The Trouble with TikTok — Margaret Sullivan was having fun.
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: The US government reportedly has evidence that Chinese-owned TikTok is sending data back to China. No way to know if that's true, but the problem is that every Chinese company must act on orders from the Chinese Communist Party. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo: TikTok Faces National Security Probe: Report
@privacyproject: From the @nytimes newsroom: One source “said that the American government had evidence of the app sending data to China,” write @jacknicas, @MikeIsaac and @AnaSwanson. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob: “A former content moderator for TikTok said in an interview that managers in the United States had instructed moderators to hide videos that included any political messages or themes, not just those related to China.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Marco Rubio / @marcorubio: Last month I asked @USTreasury to conduct a CFIUS review of @tiktok_us. Because any platform owned by a company in #China which collects massive amounts of data on Americans is a potential serious threat to our country. https://www.reuters.com/...
James Loke Hale / Tubefilter: The U.S. Government Is Investigating TikTok Parent Bytedance As A Potential National Security Threat (Report)
Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller: The most important regulation of social media isn't coming from the FTC, privacy law, or the Antitrust Division. It's coming from the national security world, which understands the threat of Chinese censorship organized through their control of social media. https://twitter.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: “TikTok did not seek clearance from CFIUS when it acquired http://musical.ly/, they added, which gives the U.S. security panel scope to investigate it now” https://www.reuters.com/...
Ben Collins / @oneunderscore__: This seems like a panic to me. A lot of domestic companies are doing a lot worse, right in front of our eyes. That said, I would love to know if TikTok is, in fact, silencing pro-Democracy Hong Kong protesters. This is one way to find out. https://twitter.com/...
Garett Sloane / Ad Age: TikTok's national security test could also test advertisers
Steven Melendez / Fast Company: Report: Fears over Chinese ownership of TikTok grow as U.S. launches security investigation
Niall Firth / MIT Technology Review: The US thinks TikTok could be a national security threat—here's why
Janko Roettgers / Variety: U.S. Regulators Have Started to Investigate TikTok (Report)
Marisa Schultz / New York Post: US government opens national security review of TikTok: report
Eli Blumenthal / CNET: US launches a national security review of TikTok, report says
Ryan Glasspiegel / The Big Lead:
Sources: The Chernin Group is exploring the sale of Barstool Sports to a gambling operator — The Chernin Group is exploring the sale of Barstool Sports to a gambling operator, two sources have told The Big Lead. One source said talks were in advanced stages (as always with these things …
Discussion:
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: NBCUniversal is considering making its ad-supported Peacock streaming service free for everyone, with an ad-free tier available for subscribers — - NBC is considering giving away the ad-supported version of its streaming service Peacock for free to everyone, sources say.
Discussion:
@theperezhilton, @modestproposal1, @pkafka, @pkafka, @sherman4949, CordCutters, The Streamable, Multichannel News, The Verge, Engadget, 9to5Mac and CNET, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Perez / @theperezhilton: Smart! There are too many streaming services now trying to compete with Netflix and more to come! I'd be willing to try them if they were free! I'd rather sit though commercials. THEN I can choose to pay a premium if I want a commercial free experience! https://www.cnbc.com/...
Modest Proposal / @modestproposal1: Giving away Peacock prob the right move. Ad buyers desperate for brand safe premium inventory. Hulu is monetizing at $10+/mo per sub. Burke thinks Peacock can do $5. As ratings continue to fall for linear and viewing goes to no ads SVOD, Peacock becomes big recipient of those $. https://twitter.com/...
Peter Kafka / @pkafka: And, also, again: So many of the new streamers will be effectively free for many consumers, very hard to make a paid pitch right now. https://www.vox.com/...
Peter Kafka / @pkafka: Free Peacock makes way more sense than paid Peacock. https://www.cnbc.com/... Peacock is sort of a Netflix/Hulu/Disney+ etc competitor, but NBCU very much sees it as a way for them to make more ad $ then they do from FB, YouTube.
Alex Sherman / @sherman4949: How do you compete as a streaming service when there are more and more and the cost is rising? Give it away for free! (With ads!) https://www.cnbc.com/...
Muhammad Jarir Kanji / CordCutters: NBC's Peacock streaming service may be free to use (with ads)
Daniel Frankel / Multichannel News: Comcast Likely to Make Peacock Free for Everyone: Report
Julia Alexander / The Verge: NBCUniversal reportedly considering making its Peacock streaming service totally free
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac: NBC's upcoming Apple TV+ competitor Peacock may be free with ads
Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
Theater chain owners upset at Netflix after talks stalled over short theater run for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, which will be weeks shorter than standard — LOS ANGELES — Netflix and the owners of the major theater chains could have made a lot of money together, if only they had seen eye to eye on the release of “The Irishman.”
Discussion:
@evincentelli, @nytimes, @danyloria, @michaelpaulson, @felixsalmon, @danielpmcdermot, @gideunz, @brooksbarnesnyt, @johndodds, @dancow, The Wrap, Variety and Hollywood Reporter
Discussion:
E Vincentelli / @evincentelli: The man saying “it's a disgrace” represents movie theaters, largely chains. I'm curious what owners of theater-theaters think. What's in it for the Shubert Organization, which owns the Belasco? What kind of deal did they strike? https://nyti.ms/2r3tx36
@nytimes: The head of an organization of movie theater owners says it's a “disgrace” that Martin Scorcese's “The Irishman” will only have a 26-day run in a limited number of theaters before it starts streaming on Netflix. Normally, it would be 72 days. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Daniel Loría / @danyloria: According to NYT, AMC & Cineplex offered to shorten their window to 60-days, essentially cutting off an entire month from the existing window, to accomodate Netflix. The streamer, however, refused to consider anything beyond 45 days https://www.nytimes.com/...
Michael Paulson / @michaelpaulson: How did “The Irishman” wind up playing at Broadway's Belasco? @nicsperling explains the backstory. Bonus: a Scorsesian photo of the theater marquee, shot by @Anrizzy. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Felix Salmon / @felixsalmon: Where's the best explanation of why theater owners would refuse to run a film with a short exclusivity window? I can see how they would make more money if the window were longer, but why refuse to show the movie at all? https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dan McDermott / @danielpmcdermot: A shame the theater owners weren't willing to enjoy a mere 45 days of jam packed profits and insisted on 60. Now they lament. https://twitter.com/...
Ted Gideonse / @gideunz: Why are we supposed to feel bad for theater owners? In LA, tickets are often $17, popcorn + a coke $15, internet ticket purchases have $2 fees. I'd rather see movies in a theater, but most are owned by vile corps that couldn't care less about “cinema.” https://nyti.ms/2r3tx36
Brooks Barnes / @brooksbarnesnyt: On the other hand, Netflix offered a 45-day window — more than before, by a lot. Nice reporting by @nicsperling https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dan Nguyen / @dancow: A short window supports Netflix's market position and strategy, which is to have people stay at home and pay for/watch Netflix instead of going out for movie tickets. A short exclusivity window means more people will wait it out to watch at home.
Beatrice Verhoeven / The Wrap: Netflix's Limited ‘The Irishman’ Release Is a ‘Disgrace,’ Head of Movie Theater Group Says
Will Oremus / OneZero:
Twitter's ban on political and issue ads will let companies advertise things like fossil fuel-based products but ban ads from activists advocating against them — The company's feel-good decision is already a mess. — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Wednesday that the company …
Discussion:
Will Oremus / @willoremus: Ads about climate change are political, Twitter says. But what about ads by oil companies, car companies, and steakhouses? They're political too, in a sense—but not the sense that will get them banned. https://onezero.medium.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Anna Massoglia / @annalecta: Twitter doesn't seem like the social media site that can pull off only selling ads for the status quo. Curious how a political ad ban on dissenting groups buying ads advocating against the same issues in corporate ads plays out for govt ads, especially before incumbent elections. https://twitter.com/...
David Carroll / @profcarroll: Especially when targeting is actually the underlying issue.
Quinta Jurecic / @qjurecic: Like, literally literally https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Emily Bell / @emilybell: To an extent - opacity is tied up with targeting and that is arguably the core of the issue. If all of this were easily legible then things would be received differently
Claudio Cesarano / @clacesarano: An interesting take on Twitter's Ban of Political Ads: if issues ads include all messages advocating for legislative change what happens to activists, labor groups, and community organizers? 🤨 https://onezero.medium.com/...
Quinta Jurecic / @qjurecic: This is quite literally the issue that WMATA has been litigating over for the past few years https://twitter.com/...
Emily Bell / @emilybell: For years platforms have grown through resisting definitions sharper than ‘content’ around the material they distribute , the reckoning around political advertising signals that this is changing...but it isn't going to be easy https://twitter.com/...
@derektmead: Jack is right in that no one needs to pay twitter to share their political discourse https://www.vice.com/...
Zak Rogoff / @zakkai: My favorite policy option is still allowing political ads but fact checking them. If it's really impossible for the big platforms to find money to fact check them, maybe they could charge extra to big spenders to subsidize the checkers. https://onezero.medium.com/...
Michael Zelenko / @mvzelenks: Twitter's heavy-handed ban on “issue ads” will quickly devolve into a mess. It's very telling that on day 1 the company was already outlining exceptions Twitter's Ban on Political Ads Will Hurt Activists, Labor Groups, and Organizers by @WillOremus https://onezero.medium.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David Herrmann / @herrmanndigital: It's almost like Zucks thought about this, and realized it's impossible to ban political advertising since we're in 2019 where everything is political. The controversy isn't worth the 0.5% loss in revenue, cause the headache of what is or isn't political will cost more. https://twitter.com/...
Jeet Heer / @heerjeet: 2. Also, as @WillOremus notes, Twitter's new policy will limit the ad buying power not just of politicians but political movements, including unions and environmentalists. But it won't hut their opponents. https://onezero.medium.com/...
Matt Kiser / @matt_kiser: This app should just be a paid product with a free version sponsored by brands with a natural affinity to Twitter's mission and values. Ads suck, political or otherwise. https://twitter.com/...
Emily Glazer / @emilyglazer: Twitter faces a new test after moving to block political ads this week: actually enforcing it. We looked at what Twitch, TikTok, Pinterest and other platforms have done: http://on.wsj.com/2WvmDzf
Will Oremus / @willoremus: The problem with banning political advertising is that almost everything is political. I wrote about how Twitter's widely applauded new policy could backfire: https://onezero.medium.com/...
Slime Puppy / @sarahnemerson: a super interesting use case for twitter's political ad ban would be climate change. it “implies that advertisers can use Twitter to promote fossil fuel and the consumption of fossil fuel-based products, but not to advocate against them,” per @WillOremus https://onezero.medium.com/... pic.twitter.com/ckBNScRn4q
The Logic:
Canada's The Logic, focusing on business, tech, policy, and culture, has raised CAD$1.8M in seed financing from Postmedia, Relay Ventures, and angel investors — The Logic today announced it has raised $1.8 million (CAD) in seed financing from Postmedia, Relay Ventures and angel investors.
Discussion:
@taylor_owen, @jessicalessin, @manuelabarcenas, @fatimabsyed, @zuschlag, @zaneschwartz, @nickdemartino and @dskok
Discussion:
Taylor Owen / @taylor_owen: Very proud of my close friend and now podcast collaborator @dskok. There aren't a lot of good news stories in journalism these days, but what he is building @the_logic is one of them. https://twitter.com/...
Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin: Big news for a member of @theinformation accelerator. Excited to be an investor https://twitter.com/...
Manuela Bárcenas / @manuelabarcenas: Congrats @muradhem and @the_logic team 👏👏
Fatima Syed / @fatimabsyed: As a year-long subscriber, The Logic's success is very cool to witness. As a new member of their reporting team, this 👇🏾 is just extremely exciting. https://twitter.com/...
JennaZuschlagMisener / @zuschlag: Big news. Huge congrats to @dskok and the @the_logic team. I'm excited for what's to come (and to join you very soon)! https://twitter.com/...
Zane Schwartz / @zaneschwartz: It's been 507 days since @the_logic launched. So happy to be a part of this tiny, brilliant team that speaks truth to power every day. Still feels unreal that we're building a viable journalism business in this, the year of our lord 2019! https://twitter.com/...
Nick DeMartino / @nickdemartino: Congrats to one of our #IDEABOOST companies. https://thelogic.co/...
David Skok / @dskok: An important milestone for our young company. Feeling so grateful for our investors, our team, and most of all, our readers who support our work every single day. We continue our fight for a strong, independent and free press to make our world a better place for all. https://twitter.com/...