Deadspin Writers Start New Site That Will Inevitably Fail
Former Deadspin writers have started a new site that will inevitably fail.
The new site, Defector, will feature all of the notable personalities who quit en masse when Deadspin ownership forced the then-current writers to do things that would actually earn the company money.
Deadspin was a site filled with mostly white writers calling out individuals, sports franchises and companies for perceived racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and the like. Sometimes they were right; other times not.
The latest incarnation of Deadspin, the one that ultimately died when the aforementioned staffers quit en masse, was a far cry from the Deadspin that existed a decade ago which everyone loved. Of course, that version of Deadspin also outed gay men for no discernible reason and published a sex tape without permission – so it had its own problems.
This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company from the writers you missed. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. https://t.co/e1tkmewKA4 pic.twitter.com/v9JAHpCDrF
— Defector (@DefectorMedia) July 28, 2020
Defector will be a subscription service that will offer $69, $99, $1,000 and $25,000 per year plans, all of which make sense given that Deadspin’s audience is largely comprised of young and middle-aged left-leaning white folks from well-off families.
The big problem for Deadspin 2.0, a.k.a. Defector, is that all of the personalities working for it are incredibly unfun. Old Deadspin, the one from a decade ago, somehow managed to mix incredible investigative reporting with viral junk in a way that made consumption of its content enjoyable. New Deadspin, unfortunately, was just a bunch of killjoys telling everyone (sometimes justifiably, but often not) why they are terrible people.
All in all, the new Deadspin will fail for the same reason the old one did. No one will actually like it, and the only support it will receive will be from like minded Twitter personalities who cannot financially support the project on their own.
That is why all the same personalities constantly praise each other on Twitter for stories that most people don’t actually read, cry for each other when they inevitably get fired because they write the type of stories nobody actually reads, and then congratulate each other when they get a new opportunity to start the cycle all over again.
The Detractor will almost certainly fail, but at least they will provide Barstool and Outkick with someone to spar with on Twitter.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
