Popular sports blog Deadspin has been sold to a European startup firm Lineup Publishing, with the website’s new owners not retaining any of the current editorial staff.
Deadspin had been owned by G/O Media since 2019 before Monday’s sale.
Deadspin’s writers and editors were given 30 minutes notice of losing their jobs before being locked out of their company laptops, per senior editor Julie DiCaro.
‘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.
Popular sports website Deadspin had its entire editorial staff not retained by its new owners
Here is the logo for Deadspin, which has been used by the company for the last several years
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.
‘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 Deadspin’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,’ Spanfeller added.
‘I would like to thank them for their hard work and efforts that helped make Deadspin stand out in the crowded sports media space,’ Spanfeller said.
Deadspin has staff members based in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles affected by the layoff.
Spanfeller added G/O Media was recently approached by Lineup Publishing, with them expressing the initial interest in buying Deadspin. Spanfeller did not disclose how much the website was sold for.
Spanfeller added the G/O Media board of directors decided to accept their offer ‘after careful consideration.’
‘As I mentioned at our all-hands meeting in December, we are always actively reviewing our portfolio and operations to make sure we are prioritizing resources to best meet the needs of our readers and advertisers,’ Spanfeller’s memo stated.
‘Although we are seeing some improvement so far this year on the advertising front, and I am cautiously optimistic this will continue, we are cognizant of the need to focus on the core sites we feel can best prosper in the current and future media business environment,’ Spanfeller added.
Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy celebrated Deadspin’s staff losing their jobs shirtless from his pool
‘These decisions are never easy, but this represents a step to keep G/O Media focused, nimble, and financially sound into the future,’ Spanfeller continued.
Deadspin’s staff losing their jobs comes as another example in an alarming trend of layoffs across sports media.
In recent months, the sports department at the New York Times was disbanded, The Messenger was shut down, and the entire editorial staff of Sports Illustrated was laid off.
Deadspin’s website is still active, with multiple stories written this morning on the homepage.
Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy has had a long hatred for Deadspin, due to the website bringing attention to his company’s alleged misogyny and treatment of employees.
‘How many times can I pop a bottle for the same goddamn company? How many times can I kill Deadspin? How many times can Julie DiCaro lose her goddamn job?’ Portnoy said shirtless while floating around his pool while recording himself.
‘It seems like infinity. But here we are once again, new bottle of champagne,’ Portnoy continued. ‘… This is just kicking a dead*** dog. But you know what? I’m not beyond it. To Deadspin, everybody getting fired again.’
‘Those motherf***ers just don’t get it. Being miserable, hating life, never laughing. It’s never going to pay the bills. See you motherf***ers on the employment line. Again! Victory!’ Portnoy concluded after spitting up a mouthful of champagne.
DiCaro has yet to directly reply to being mentioned by Portnoy, although she did post on X saying ‘I know there are lots of people who will probably be ecstatic about this news, but I’m devastated for my colleagues and for the state of sports journalism.’
DiCaro also dedicated a whole chapter of her 2021 book, ‘Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America’, to the ‘abusive online environment at Barstool Sports’.
Deadspin was originally launched in 2005 as part of Gawker, before being sold to Univision in 2016. It was sold to Spanfeller and G/O Media in 2019.
After a ‘stick to sports’ directive coming from Spanfeller to his new colleagues, Deadspin’s old staff quit as a whole in October 2019, with a new group of editors and writers starting with the website in March 2020.
Deadspin rose in popularity in early 2013 after breaking the story about the death of former Notre Dame star Manti Te’o’s girlfriend being a hoax.
