Deadspin
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| Deadspin | |
|---|---|
| URL | http://www.deadspin.com/ |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Blog |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | Gawker Media |
| Created by | Will Leitch (Editor in Chief) Rick Chandler (Associate Editor) Matt Sussman, Unsilent Majority |
| Launched | September 9, 2005 |
| Current status | Active |
Deadspin is a sports website owned by Gawker Media that claims to deliver sports "without access, favor or discretion." The site launched in September 2005. With 111 million unique visitors and about 143 million page views as of December 2007,[1] Deadspin was the second highest trafficked sports blog on the internet, behind only AOL Fanhouse. Since AOL Fanhouse is a collection of various blogs even AOL admits that Deadspin may be the highest trafficked traditional blog.[2]
Deadspin's outgoing editor is Will Leitch, author and a founding editor of the New York City-based culture website, "The Black Table". Leitch announced on June 5, 2008 that he would be leaving as editor on Friday, June 27th, having accepted a position at New York Magazine. A search is underway for his replacement.[3] Rick Chandler is the associate editor, and blogger The Mighty MJD was the weekend editor until July 1, 2007, when he announced his resignation and that the weekend slot would be filled by the trio of Matt Sussman, Unsilent Majority, and JE Skeets (later replaced by Christmas Ape). The editorial tone is similar to that of its sister site Gawker.com, sarcastic, humorous and often critical of mainstream media personalities.
Contents |
[edit] Content
The site posts commentaries, recaps and previews of the major sports stories of the day, as well as sports-related anecdotes, rumors and YouTube videos. The last post each evening is tagged "DUAN" and means Deadspin Up All Night, often taking on a life of its own and featuring wildly diverse (and not necessarily related to sport) comments. Like Gawker.com, stories on Deadspin come from anonymous tips, readers and other sports blogs.
[edit] Features
In addition to its normal blog content, Deadspin runs semi-regular features from correspondents, such as David Hirshey's columns about the FA Premier League and A.J. Daulerio's "Cultural Oddsmaker", formerly a feature from the short-lived Gawker Media gambling site he edited, Oddjack.
During major sporting events such as the Super Bowl and NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Deadspin has run real-time commentaries (live blogs) on the television broadcast. The site has also had contributors report from sites of major events.
Other features include Five Tiny Tidbits On..., which profiles participating teams in an upcoming event such as the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and the FIFA World Cup, one by one. Deadspin also occasionally interviews authors of sports books in a feature titled Sports Author With Pure Hearts; past interview subjects include Jeff Pearlman, author of Love Me, Hate Me and Sam Walker, author of Fantasyland.
Another recent feature to the website is its "Media Approval Ratings." which asks readers to give their opinion of various sports media personalities, parodying Presidential approval ratings.
The site's comment feature often takes a life of its own, with groups of commenters often coming together to form blogs of their own, such as Kissing Suzy Kolber, Melt Your Face-Off, Ladies..., or Unprofessional Foul harkening back to the site's old rule that all commenters must be bloggers in their own right. Site meet-ups (also called "Pants Parties" after a quote from Steve Carell's character Brick Tamland in the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) are often advertised on the site, usually at baseball games or other sporting events.
[edit] Awards
Deadspin introduced two honors in 2006: The Deadspin Hall of Fame Award and the Sports Human of the Year Award, Deadspin's parodies of Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year and Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
[edit] Sports Human of the Year Award
The 2006 Sports Human of the Year award was won by Barbaro, despite not being human. The Sports Human of the Year award, or SHOTY, is run in a single elimination NCAA Final Four style format. Readers were allowed to nominate competitors with the top 16 selected and seeded by the editors.[4] Readers then voted in head-to-head match ups for whom they thought should advance. Two months after the voting process began, Barbaro beat out a heavily favored Chris Berman amid voting irregularities.[5]
New York Knicks head coach and general manager Isiah Thomas was recently crowned the 2007 SHOTY, beating out such other infamous sports figures from the year as Elijah Dukes, Pac-Man Jones and Michael Vick. Thomas' opponent in the final round of voting was Kige Ramsey, whose "YouTube Sports" videos became a popular Deadspin meme.
[edit] Deadspin Hall of Fame
2006 Inductees: Clinton Portis, Carl Monday, Kyle Orton, the Minnesota Vikings Boat Party Scandal (the "Sex Boat"), Renee Thomas and Angela Keathley (the Carolina Panthers cheerleaders from the TopCat Scandal), and the catchphrase You're with me, leather.
2007 Inductee: Ned.
[edit] Mainstream recognition
Sports Illustrated cited two stories that came from Deadspin, photographs of Matt Leinart partying in New York City and the first published report that outfielder Matt Lawton had tested positive for steroids, as two of the top web stories of 2005, and Time named the site one of the 50 coolest websites of 2006.[6][7] In March 2006, Leitch blogged live from the NCAA Basketball Tournament as an official media guest of CBS Sports.[8] He also "glogged" Super Bowl XLI for CBS in 2007.[9]
"You're with me, leather", a phrase allegedly used by ESPN anchor Chris Berman, appeared in an anecdote submitted by a site contributor, became a running gag among readers and was used on-air by television personalities such as ESPN's Tony Kornheiser and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.[10]
On February 8, 2007, on Around the Horn, Jay Mariotti criticized the idea of athletes blogging the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The host, Tony Reali, quickly interrupted Mariotti and muted him. At the close of the show Reali could be heard yelling "Don't take my Deadspin away from me!"[11]
On March 6th, 2007, Around the Horn ran a segment about Peyton Manning making an appearance at a 16-year-old's birthday party. Tony Reali thanked Deadspin for the tip. A year later, Tony Kornheiser would recognize the anniversary of the event while also crediting Deadspin for the story.[12]
[edit] References
- ^ "Deadspin site summary", Sitemeter, December 18, 2007.
- ^ Is the No. 1 Sports Blog
- ^ A Note From Your Editor
- ^ Sports Human of the Year Bracket
- ^ Your SHOTY Winner: Barbaro
- ^ "Top Web Stories Of The Year", Sports Illustrated, March 22, 2006.
- ^ Buechner, Maryanne Murray. "50 Coolest Websites 2006", Time, August 3, 2006.
- ^ Deitsch, Richard. "Method behind the Madness", Sports Illustrated, March 17, 2006.
- ^ Super Bowl XLI Glog
- ^ Hoffarth, Tom. "The dubious dozen", LA Daily News, November 27, 2006.
- ^ Jay Mariotti on Around the Horn 2/8/07
- ^ We're All Day-to-Day: Kornheiser name-drops Deadspin; Wilbon doubts story
[edit] External links
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