Popular sports website Deadspin, part of the G/O Media empire, has been sold.
The site, known for biting leftwing commentary, laid off it’s entire editorial staff and it all happened very quickly.
‘Writers and Editors Were Given 30 Minutes Notice’
As has become distressingly commonplace in the media world, employees were reportedly given just 30 minutes’ notice after the email announcement to get out of their company computers.
The site has also reportedly been sold to a European startup.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail: ‘I do want to make it clear that we were not actively shopping Deadspin,’ G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said in a memo to staff, which was obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘The rationale behind the decision to sell included a variety of important factors that include the buyer’s editorial plans for the brand, tough competition in the sports journalism sector, and a valuation that reflected a sizable premium from our original purchase price for the site,’ Spanfeller continued.
Per DiCaro, Deadspin’s staff were locked out of their company email accounts quick enough where they did not receive the memo from Spanfeller, meaning they likely first saw it on social media.
Spanfeller isn’t kidding about the competition in sports journalism. Just ask me! And there, I just told you, it’s true. (That’s why you should make Bounding Into Sports your primary sports site!)
Deadspin Not Dead
“Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand,” Spanfeller’s memo continued. “While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadpin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage. This unfortunately means that we will be parting ways with those impacted staff members, who were notified earlier today.”
In 2005, Deadspin was originally launched as part of Gawker.
It was sole to Univision in 2016, who in turn sold it to Spanfeller and G/O Media in 2019.
It’s never fun to lose your job, but doubly worse in such dramatic fashion.
If any Deadspin writers are looking for work, slide into our Twitter DMs and drop a line!
