The current iteration of the sports website Deadspin is officially dead, with a new version of it expected to be resurrected in the future under new ownership.
Deadspin’s parent company is G/O Media, a holding company created by the private equity firm Great Hill Partners. On Monday, G/O Media informed Deadspin’s staff that they had agreed to sell the website to European company “Lineup Publishing.”
The new owners fired the entire Deadspin staff. Deadspin employees apparently had been locked out of all their accounts on Monday.
In a letter to Deadspin’s employees, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller told employees that they were not actively looking to sell the company, but they couldn’t turn down the “premium” price they had been offered.
So @deadspin has been sold to European owners and every employee has been fired. pic.twitter.com/2RPpWd5OCD
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 11, 2024
The new owners appear likely to make big changes to the site, which had devolved into a far-left political site centered around sports.
“Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand. While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadspin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage,” the letter to employees said.
It’s unclear what the sale of the website will mean for the lawsuit Deadspin and writer Carron J. Phillips are facing over a false and defamatory article they published in November about a young Chiefs fan. But what is clear is that major changes are coming to the once-prominent and influential sports site.
