‘Deadspin’ to Launch for Third Time With Mysterious Owners, Unclear Staff

Deadspin’s latest revival is slated to take place next week, although its new Malta-based owners have given no indication about the editorial direction for the sports site. 

Lineup Publishing—a start-up with no history of producing sports content or anything else— purchased Deadspin for an undisclosed sum from G/O Media in March, a move that coincided with Deadspin’s entire staff getting let go. A spokesperson told Front Office Sports via email that Deadspin will relaunch next week but offered no other details about the direction of the site. 

FOS has sent numerous requests for comment to Lineup Publishing since the sale was announced March 11. Thursday’s response about the site restarting was the first concrete piece of information that Lineup Publishing has supplied. 

When the acquisition was announced, Lineup Publishing’s landing page was bare bones, and there’s still not a lot to go on. But it appears that the new Deadspin will focus on sports betting rather than the edgy editorial content the site was known for years ago.

“We aim to be able to support delivery of this via partnerships within the sports betting industry,” the Lineup site reads. “We believe that by doing this, we can deliver the top quality content people want to read, without impeding the quality and usability of the site.”

Since the sale, Deadspin has been auto-populated with stories from the wire service Field Level Media. No jobs have been listed on the Lineup Publishing website, and there’s no LinkedIn profile for Lineup Publishing.

Deadspin went dark once before, after the entire staff quit in 2019 after interim editor-in-chief Barry Petchesky ignored a “stick to sports” mandate from G/O Media. The site relaunched with a new staff in March ’20.