The state of journalism is in deep flux, and this week Deadspin was the latest domino to fall.
On Monday, G/O Media announced it would be selling the sports media outlet to a European firm called Lineup Publishing, and that it would be letting go of its entire staff.
The eclectic media outlet had published several massive stories in the sports space, including the article that alleged sexual misconduct of NFL quarterback Brett Farve against Jenn Sterger in 2010 and the hoax of the death of the girlfriend of Heisman trophy candidate Manti Te'o in 2013.
But on Monday, the firm suffered the same fate that the likes of Sports Illustrated and Vice have gone through over the last several months.
Deadspin editor Julie DiCaro joined "The Dan Le Batard Show" on Tuesday, Mar. 12 to and explained how it got to this point for the sports outlet.
"We really became a game of how many readers can I get to read this rather than good journalism, which is what I think many of us went there intending to try to do," Dicaro said.
DiCaro joined the staff in 2019, a tumultuous time for the company as it was acquired by private equity firm G/O Media. Later in the year, the entire staff of Deadspin quit in protest to the way that the company was being run by its new management.
She explained that staff was really being pushed to change the content it was publishing.
"It's a thing of Google algorithms ruling everything, of being constantly encouraged to write not about what you want to write about and what's interesting or what you think your readers will find interesting, but what's trending on Google," DiCaro said.
She said that firms are clearly taking media outlets now, and they view them more for profit than for the journalism they produce.
"You've got these VC guys coming in to journalism, see it as a profit-making enterprise, and they come in and what equity firms do is strip away resources, layoffs, everything to squeeze every last dime out of a company before they still it for its parts," DiCaro said.
Related: Pablo Torre is upending the norms of sports media — and his parents — with his new show
Ultimately, DiCaro recognized that the media space is changing and people are getting their news from different places like social media. But she wished that more people valued the importance of news, especially now that false information is so rampant.
"People need to care where their news come from," DiCaro said. "When you're hearing that NFL wants to acquire part of ESPN, things like that. People need to realize if you don't like the news you're getting, you don't like things that are happening, it's because everything is being congealed into like one media company that is in bed with all the leagues."
And she ended with a very somber note about the state of journalism.
"It's hard because people just don't seem to care about journalism anymore," Dicaro said. "And I really fear not just for sports, but for the country."
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
TheStreet is owned by The Arena Group, which last held the license of Sports Illustrated.
