Deadspin pivots to non-sports coverage as owners demand shift to sports
twitter.comDeadspin, on it's own, was and is a profitable vertical. This story is completely about mismanagement and an unbelievably dumb calculation of believing the strength of a media brand is unrelated to its contributors. Further, don't ever confuse private equity for something more than it is: in nearly all cases, it's designed to suck out blood, saddle it with debt, and leave things in ruins. Ask Sears.
Please read this for more background: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-adults-in-the-room-183...
It's an absurd and ridiculous shame what is happening to them, and while I know this is HN and HN is connected to YC, that thin-skinned vampire Thiel is at lease partially to blame.
"Partially to Blame"
Blame is the wrong word I think...I would say "partially to thank" for ridding the media world of Nick Denton's coin-op libel mill, which had been tempting fate for years.
Good on the journalists still there.
What's crazy about this situation is that the site was already successful. Some rich people bought a website with an audience so they could extract money from it, but apparently didn't understand the concept of "devoted team."