Deadspin editor quits, blasts G/O management

That has one of the great lines:
"Life is white, and I am black.
"Jesus and his lawyer are coming back."

 

I think I read it somewhere on Deadspin.

 

One of the good aspects of Patch to me was that it could give you some good data for things like this. I quickly came to two conclusions: 1) People outside of an area don't really give a shit about Important Games that don't feature local teams and 2) Almost nobody read articles about teams losing, even if it was like in the championship game. I did a write-up of a championship soccer game - area team lost, and the hit numbers were lowered than pretty much all of their regular season wins.

 

That second point is interesting, because I've always thought the story of the loser is more compelling.

 

As storytelling, yes, the loser is the real story. Per Tolstoy, winning teams are all alike; every losing team is a loser in its own way.

That said, local fans of those losing teams don't always want to read about the losing. Not right away. Especially in the immediate aftermath of having gakked away a championship or something.

That post mortem can be unbearable. They'll revisit the Big Loss in the preview package for the next season.

 

Magary says he was on the verge of jumping ship to SI in July -- for significantly higher pay -- before that place imploded along some of the same lines as Deadspin (with layoffs instead of resignations after the new owners came in):

The Gig Economy Never Leaves You

 

I saw that. And I feel for him. He's very good at what he does.

But the truth is that it has always been hard to make a living as a writer. In the old, pre-digital days the problem was the barrier to entry. Every time you submitted something, you were up against the best writers in the world for space in the newspaper or the magazine.

Now there's literally no barrier to entry. But there's no money, either.

 

Really? All alike? lol

 

Deadspinners and guys like Magary should get in touch with the editor at Heavy.com ... in the interim it's a good place to sharpen both your reporting and writing chops. I don't think you can wax about how avocado toast gives you the hot squirts though ... unless it's wrapped around some kind of homicide or perverted sexcapade with name appeal.

 

Well, what he wrote in Anna Karenina was "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

 

I heard Barry Peterchesky got a job. Boy that was quick

 

No barrier to entry is its own major problem. There is so much material out there, and so many people who think they can write and report but can't, that good voices often get lost in the wilderness. The glut of people trying to do this job also makes the ones who have been doing it well for a long time incredibly disposable.