Deadspin Fires All Employees As Part Of Liquidation Sale, Just Weeks After ‘Blackface’ Lawsuit

Four weeks after the family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan sued Deadspin after ‘journalist’ Carron Phillips falsely accused him of wearing blackface at a game, the outlet’s parent company, G/O Media (previously Gizmodo Media Group), announced that it had fired everyone and sold the sports blogging site to a European company, Lineup Publishing. Lineup seeks to “build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand,” CEO Jim Spanfeller announced Monday.

We don’t imagine the sale is likely to impact the lawsuit, which was filed against G/O Media.

Phillips, meanwhile, has gone private on X, and may find himself in the unemployment line for a while.

Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy, who Deadspin has talked massive shit about in the past, celebrated – as one does when an enemy self-vanquishes.

“How many times can I pop a bottle for the same goddamn company? How many times can I kill Deadspin? How many times can Julie DiCaro lose her goddamn job?” Portnoy said, adding “Those motherfuckers just don’t get it. Being miserable, hating life, never laughing. It’s never going to pay the bills. See you motherfuckers on the employment line. Again! Victory!”

Damn. Hate to see it. #deadspin https://t.co/MTNUKg3ItL pic.twitter.com/3Q1xXho7fY

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 11, 2024

More on the sale, via Axios:

•     Impacted staffers were notified Monday that they were being let go from G/O Media, marking the third round of cuts at the firm in less than a year.
•     Spanfeller said Lineup Publishing approached him about the sale and that the company was not “actively shopping Deadspin.”
•     “The rationale behind the decision to sell included a variety of important factors that include the buyer’s editorial plans for the brand, tough competition in the sports journalism sector, and a valuation that reflected a sizable premium from our original purchase price for the site,” Spanfeller wrote in the memo.
•     “While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadpin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage,” he added.

Catch up quick: G/O Media has been offloading sites and cutting staff gradually over the past year as it streamlines its focus to become more efficient.

    The company shuttered its female-focused brand Jezebel and laid off 23 editorial staffers as part of a broader restructuring last November. It later sold Jezebel to Paste Magazine.

    It sold its lifestyle website Lifehacker to Ziff Davis last March and laid off 13 staffers last June.

 Another one bites the dust.

BREAKING.🚨

“There’s a heart-warming ending to Deadspin’s famously failed story of a 9-year-old kid who was caught wearing ‘black face’…”

Sports Journalist Who Wrote ‘Black Face’ Hit Piece on 9-Year-Old Chiefs Fan is Now Unemployed https://t.co/bBOXsdCobS

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 11, 2024