The state of journalism is profoundly changing, and this week Deadspin was the latest domino to fall.
On Monday, G/O Media announced that it would sell the sports outlet to a European company called Lineup Publishing and that it would lay off its entire staff.
The eclectic media outlet had published several massive stories in the sports space, including the article alleging sexual misconduct by Brett Farve, NFL quarterback against Jenn Sterger in 2010 and the hoax of the death of his girlfriend Manti Te'o, Heisman Trophy candidate in 2013.
But on Monday, the company suffered the same fate that companies like Sports Illustrated and Vice have suffered in recent months.
Deadspin editor Julie DiCaro joined “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Tuesday, March 12, and explained how she got to this point for the sports outlet.
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“We really became a game of how many readers can I get to read this rather than good journalism, which is what I think a lot of us went there with the intention of trying to do,” Dicaro said.
DiCaro joined the staff in 2019, a tumultuous time for the company as it was acquired by private equity firm G/O Media. Later in the year, The entire Deadspin staff resigned in protest.ta the way the company was being run by its new management.
He explained that staff were really being pressured to change the content they posted.
“It's about Google's algorithms ruling everything, constantly encouraging you to write not about what you want to write about and what's interesting or what you think your readers will find interesting, but about what's trending on Google,” he said. DiCaro.
He said companies are clearly taking over media outlets now, viewing them more for their profits than for the journalism they produce.
“There are these types of venture capital that come into journalism, they see it as a for-profit company, and when they come in, what the capital firms do is strip away resources, lay off people, everything to squeeze every last cent out of a company. company before still for its parts,” DiCaro said.
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Ultimately, DiCaro acknowledged that the media space is changing and people are getting news from different places, such as social media. But he wanted more people to appreciate the importance of news, especially now that false information is so widespread.
“People should care about where the news comes from,” DiCaro said. “When you hear that the NFL wants to acquire part of ESPN, things like that. People have to realize that if you don't like the news you're getting, you don't like the things that are happening, it's because everything is fine.” “It's freezing like a media company that's in bed with all the leagues.”
And it ended on a very somber note about the state of journalism.
“It's difficult because people don't seem to care about journalism anymore,” Dicaro said. “And I really fear not only for the sport, but also for the country.”
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TheStreet is owned by The Arena Group, which last held the license to Sports Illustrated.
