Deadspin

Deadspin
Type of site
Sports
Owner
IndustrySports journalism
URLdeadspin.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedSeptember 9, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-09-09)
Current statusActive

Deadspin is a sports blog owned by Lineup Publishing. Founded by Will Leitch in 2005, and originally based in Chicago, it was then sold to Gawker Media, Univision Communications and G/O Media. Lineup Publishing acquired it in March 2024, then laid off the entire editorial staff. The blog is operational on 8 November, 2024.

Deadspin posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries of major sports stories, as well as sports-related anecdotes, rumors, and videos. In addition to covering sports, the site wrote about the media, pop culture, and politics, and published several non-sports sub-sections, including The Concourse[1] and the humor blog Adequate Man.[2] Contrasting with traditional sports updates of other outlets,[3] Deadspin was known for its irreverent, conversational tone,[4] often injecting crude humor into its writing and taking a critical lens to the topics it covered.[3] Over time, the site expanded into more investigative journalism and broke several stories, including the revelation of the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax.[3] Alumni writers of Deadspin have gone on to work for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated, and established Defector Media.[3]

During October and November 2019, the website's entire writing and editorial staff resigned due to conflicts with G/O Media management over a directive to "stick to sports" content only.[3][4] Deadspin began publishing content again in March 2020. The site has suffered after the mass resignations, reportedly attracting only 10.22% of its previous readership.[5] In March 2024, G/O Media sold Deadspin to Lineup Publishing; as a result of the sale, the site's entire staff was laid off.[6]

  1. ^ "The Concourse - Culture, food, whatever". The Concourse. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  2. ^ "Adequate Man - Be good enough at everything". Adequate Man. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e Strauss, Ben (November 1, 2019). "Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Liew, Jonathan (November 1, 2019). "Deadspin, the limits of 'sticking to sport' and why we should never just shut up and consume". The Independent. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  5. ^ "Deadspin's traffic and execution will both need to vastly improve if the site wants to survive in the long term". Awful Announcing. May 28, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference selloff was invoked but never defined (see the help page).