Deadspin editor quits, blasts G/O management

That might be some of it.

But those numbers prove otherwise. They weren't all that interested in writing standalone politics under the Deadspin umbrella.

The staff just wanted to dramatize its opposition to the new ownership.

It did so.

 

And the new guy had to do an online apology already and beg forgiveness from the mob. And if he was a scab (as some people screamed at him, though I still don't get how), what about the Gawker writers and editors who stayed on after Craggs and Read resigned following the story that outed Geithner's brother and supported his blackmailer? They took a stand too. Was anyone who didn't die on that hill a scab?

 

The guy should have had more backbone and not freaking resigned just bc strangers were mean to him online. Really, that's the kind of freaking journalists we're developing nowadays? What a wimp.

 

I know perfectly well who Univision was, and what they bought it (and sold it) for.

You tell me if you think there is a difference in what Great Hill (spelling?) Partners calculated w/r/t Deadspin when they bought the company for pennies on the dollar from Univision - and what it looks like today. You think the projected IRR is going to be close?

 

From the story:
Whatever reasons G/O Media has for sticking to sports, or a policy that has led to the loss of half its editorial staff, the data on Deadspin’s own website do not support them.

They quit because of a litany of things. This was the final straw.

As Laura Wagner's August piece on Deadspin details and the NYT article corroborates, multiple editorial staff - including former Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell - had previously resigned because of interference from the new ownership group. Where the C-level executive suite once contained a diverse selection of people, the new ownership group filled it with white men of the same background who had all been friends and coworkers of Jim Spanfeller. The executives don't communicate effectively with staff (not unusual, but a problem).

Read Wagner's article about Spanfeller. The man is on a Gatehouse/Gannett level of not knowing what he's doing.

There was also a survey placed on Deadspin regarding content that was posted without approval from the editorial staff, which the union had bargained for in its contract. Spanfeller also tried to stop Wagner's story, saying the company shouldn't report on itself (something Deadspin/Gawker have done since its inception).

As someone who has been in a similar situation, when management consistently lies to you, keeps you in the dark, moves tangible goals without warning, and interferes in the editorial process, morale plummets. Eventually you break. You either accept the shit you're fed, or you quit. Many people aren't in position to quit. The Deadspin staff was.

This was never about one thing. It never is. It's about a pattern that showcases a lack of integrity, a failing of journalistic principles, and a work environment that is clearly untenable. Those are conditions in this industry that should never be acceptable.

 

Lost in all the latest navel-gazing about Deadspin and the guy who got "ratioed into outer space" for writing about KD v Draymond: He apparently composes his articles in Word.

Let that sink in for a moment: An Internet author using Word? WTH?

 

I saw something about this the other day—maybe it's The New Yorker who is still allowed to use Word, when the rest of Conde Nast has to use Google Docs, I think?

I use Word. Have never used anything else. Terrified of the idea of using anything else. Had no idea there was anything else.

 

Ditto.

I understand how and why companies want to use Google Docs, but I've never cared for it.

And a thousand years ago, back before Microsoft muscled everyone else aside, I used Word Perfect and Professional Write.

 

Well, salary expense for the 4q will be a lot lower

 

Right before I left the Sun, we were told to write in some internal server that let editors see/edit your copy as it was being composed. (Like Google Docs with a touch of Big Brother.) I flat refused. I can’t imagine anything more anxiety-inducing for a writer than someone virtually standing over your shoulder and saying “Hmm, I think you might want to move this up higher before you get to the next section.”