Left-wing sports news site Deadspin will be under new management starting Monday, with the entire staff currently looking for work.
The website was sold to a European journalism start-up, and employees were told on Monday that the new company would be doing a complete clean-up and starting with all new employees.
Jim Spanfeller, CEO of parent company G/O Media, which sold the sports site, broke the news to employees in a memo, leaving employees panicking.
“We recently received interest from European company Lineup Publishing in acquiring Deadspin to add to our growing media holdings,” Spanfeller said. Said In his message to new york post.
Spanfeller said Lineup Publishing has decided “not to take over the site’s existing staff, but instead to build a new team aligned with the brand’s editorial vision.”
“The rationale for the sale decision included a number of important factors, including the buyer’s editorial plans for the brand, strong competition in the sports journalism space, and a valuation that reflected a significant premium to the site’s original purchase price. ” Spanfeller explained.
Email Deadspin staff now to notify them that they are being sold and the new owner will not be retaining them. pic.twitter.com/KHg384zVmy
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 11, 2024
G/O Media has owned Deadspin since 2019
daily beast Added The fired employees were immediately locked out of all company email, workflow and computer systems, the company said. Employees who were in the office were taken from the premises.
The firing comes after an embarrassing scandal in which one of the site’s top writers accused a 9-year-old NFL fan of being a “racist” at a Kansas City Chiefs game last year.
In November, Deadspin senior writer Caron Phillips reported that Chiefs fan Holden Armenta attended a game when an image of a boy wearing an Indians headdress, a Chiefs jersey and black face paint went viral. denounced wearing “blackface” as “racist.” Mr. Phillips accused the boy, his parents, and the NFL of being racist against both Black people and Native Americans, but what he failed to report was that the boy was wearing the NFL team’s colors of half black and half red. He was wearing face paint. He said the boy himself is of Native American descent.
why @Deadspin @carronJphillips Are you trying to ruin this child’s life?They accuse him of blackface, but his entire face, painted for the game, is conveniently omitted. https://t.co/kFfgAL4aDH pic.twitter.com/750u5sfETE
— TikTok Library (@libsoftiktok) November 28, 2023
of article It was eventually updated to reflect more facts, but the family ended up suing Deadspin for defamation anyway.
The whole incident was a serious stain on Deadspin’s already awakened partisan reputation.
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