OT: Pittsburgh Media Thread - Still the Worst | Now with Drunken Rants!

[Pens1566]

rofl

DK break into another twitter account?

 

[Winger for Hire]

rofl

DK break into another twitter account?

You can't just dump that without more info...

 

[Pens1566]

You can't just dump that without more info...

Pittsburgh reporter accuses former employer of spying on DMs, employer denies

 

[Winger for Hire]

Oh, that. I was hoping it was something new.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Dweebs.

 

[FlightlessBird]

There are too many horror stories from former DK “employees” to not believe that something is there.

Plus, I mean, it’s not that hard to believe if you just look at how DK acts on Twitter to normal people/subscribers.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I remember the days when DK was actually the respected hockey journalist down in the trenches reporting on a terribad Penguins team.

Then he left for the Pirates only to return years later... a changed and much shittier man.

But hey... the Pirates will do that, amirite?

 

[Rossi Rat]

Lol, that Vuk Guy is an absolute clown anyway.

Anyway, Madden is back on air today and already expending a lot of energy going on and on about Juju again, millennial punk, blah blah blah. Same as it ever was!

 

[HandshakeLine]

Crazy amounts of respect for Deadspin going out in a blaze of glory.

 

[Pens1566]

Crazy amounts of respect for Deadspin going out in a blaze of glory.

Yep. The staff that's quitting is turning it into a useless husk to f*** over the new ownership group. Well done.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Crazy amounts of respect for Deadspin going out in a blaze of glory.

Wouldn't expect anything less from that group

 

[cookthebooks]

i honestly dont understand how that gang cant reassemble and launch the same basic site without any private equity involvement. is it really so expensive to start a digital media site that you can't go to the bank with a business plan and get a loan?

 

[ownal]

i honestly dont understand how that gang cant reassemble and launch the same basic site without any private equity involvement. is it really so expensive to start a digital media site that you can't go to the bank with a business plan and get a loan?

Well judging on the fact the site uses the theme: Flex Mag - Responsive WordPress News Theme. $39.... All joking aside. A refresh of the design, Cache work so the site isn't dead slow and throwing it up on Amazon ec2 with a load balancer a few thousand dollars. It would be a week project.

 

[HandshakeLine]

i honestly dont understand how that gang cant reassemble and launch the same basic site without any private equity involvement. is it really so expensive to start a digital media site that you can't go to the bank with a business plan and get a loan?

Yeah, it kinda is, unfortunately. Hosting is cheap-ish only if you're dealing with something low traffic. Once you start bringing in enough visitors to make ads viable, you're going to pay some serious coin, and then there's health insurance, paying for IT and tech, and all of the other overhead you need to clear. Plus, you have to start from the beginning in terms of building a brand, getting accreditation, finding media partners and sponsorships, so that means you're going to be burning through a lot of the loan long before the site can be profitable via ads, especially if you're paying your writers a living wage and not making them into some bullshit content mill like Last Word Army or the new Sports Illustrated.

It's easy enough to make a website, but even a small forum with a limited numbers of users or daily commentators is going to rack up some serious hosting fees pretty quickly.

It sucks, especially because, like 'em or hate 'em, Deadspin was one of the sites that was great about bringing sports to a huge range of people who would never be interested in them normally, and making them into passionate fans via smart, irreverent coverage that wasn't regurgitated team PR, unlike pretty much every other outlet.

I'd rather have David J. Roth remember some guys instead of Yohe lick the toe-jam out of JR's orthopedic socks any day of the week, and I despise baseball as a concept.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Well judging on the fact the site uses the theme: Flex Mag - Responsive WordPress News Theme. $39.... All joking aside. A refresh of the design, Cache work so the site isn't dead slow and throwing it up on Amazon ec2 with a load balancer a few thousand dollars. It would be a week project.

But then there's payroll, insurance, finding subscribers (if you don't want to be entirely ad supported) or selling ads, backend and graphic design costs, the cost of paying the writers, and more.

You could get something online for cheap, but it'd inherently be a completely different kind of project if you don't have the funding necessary to go as all out as Deadspin did.

 

[ownal]

But then there's payroll, insurance, finding subscribers (if you don't want to be entirely ad supported) or selling ads, backend and graphic design costs, the cost of paying the writers, and more.

You could get something online for cheap, but it'd inherently be a completely different kind of project if you don't have the funding necessary to go as all out as Deadspin did.

He said to throw up the site. He didn't say operating costs. It is a glorified blog.

 

[HandshakeLine]

He said to throw up the site. He didn't say operating costs. It is a glorified blog.

Sure if you want it just to be a blog. But that's like calling DK's site a blog, or most sports sites blogs. I get your point though, but again, as I pointed out, the big hurdle to re-creating Deadspin or a site like Grantland/the Athletic, is all of the other overhead costs that go into creating something that readers want to come to.

Incidentally, I wonder how much overhead this site has per month?

 

[Winger for Hire]

My heart hurts every time someone brings up Grantland.

If the demise if these two sites brings about the merging of those two ideas/site, then it's all been worth it.

 

[HandshakeLine]

My heart hurts everyone someone brings up Grantland.

If the demise if these two sites brings about the merging of those two ideas/site, then it's all been worth it.

Yeah, Grantland was great. I miss it too.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

Crazy amounts of respect for Deadspin going out in a blaze of glory.

Ok what did I miss???

 

[HandshakeLine]

Ok what did I miss???

The equity firm that owns Deadspin fired a writer because he wasn't "sticking to sports" enough, so the entire staff, from the staff writers to the editors, quit, rendering the entire site useless and worthless.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Ok what did I miss???

What’s happening at Deadspin is a travesty

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

The thing that gets me is that the best, and often biggest, stories weren't sports related. And it's not even political realm stuff, but personal things or even the cooking blogs or something as stupid as posts about dogs. Saying "stick to sports" is horrible for them. I think it was Wyshynski that said it best (paraphrasing) "Buying Deadspin and saying 'Stick to sports.' is like buying Cheesecake factory and getting rid of the entire menu that's not cheesecake." It really was a community. I made a genuine friend from one of the writers (Tim Burke) because of the blog. It's something I've gone to every day for 12+ years (since I started sports talk radio and was told about it). Journalistically it's a big loss. Personally it's much bigger.

 

[HandshakeLine]

The thing that gets me is that the best, and often biggest, stories weren't sports related. And it's not even political realm stuff, but personal things or even the cooking blogs or something as stupid as posts about dogs. Saying "stick to sports" is horrible for them. I think it was Wyshynski that said it best (paraphrasing) "Buying Deadspin and saying 'Stick to sports.' is like buying Cheesecake factory and getting rid of the entire menu that's not cheesecake." It really was a community. I made a genuine friend from one of the writers (Tim Burke) because of the blog. It's something I've gone to every day for 12+ years (since I started sports talk radio and was told about it). Journalistically it's a big loss. Personally it's much bigger.

Or they were, but just in tangential ways. One of my favorite ones was about how a small town newspaper accidentally printed an obscene mockup instead of the actual article and the firestorm that happened from that. Was it about sports? Not really. But it's all about what it means to be passionate about sports, what it means to be a journalist, and a great glimpse into small town life.

Hell, Drew Magary's piece about his neurological recovery (the dude had a brain hemorrhage at an office party!) was one of the most touching and articulate articles ever written about what it feels like to recover pieces of your mind after a terrifying neurological ordeal. Like you said, it wasn't specifically about sports, but it was also quintessentially Deadspin.

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

Or they were, but just in tangential ways. One of my favorite ones was about how a small town newspaper accidentally printed an obscene mockup instead of the actual article and the firestorm that happened from that. Was it about sports? Not really. But it's all about what it means to be passionate about sports, what it means to be a journalist, and a great glimpse into small town life.

Hell, Drew Magary's piece about his neurological recovery (the dude had a brain hemorrhage at an office party!) was one of the most touching and articulate articles ever written about what it feels like to recover pieces of your mind after a terrifying neurological ordeal. Like you said, it wasn't specifically about sports, but it was also quintessentially Deadspin.

A buddy of mine linked to a story last night that was his quintessential Deadspin story. It was also from Drew and was about his loneliness of being a transfer student. It was a great article about how it felt like, at either school he went to, he felt alone because every clique had already been formed (from already being friends locally at Michigan, to everyone already knowing each other at his next stop because it was half a year in. It had nothing to do with sports (other than Drew saying he went to a Michigan/Colorado game alone and noticed everyone else was with someone and felt even worse) but it was one of the most affecting pieces I'd read.