See UPDATE at the bottom of this post.
Hidden in AJ Daulerio and Bill Conlin's excellent column about the Phillies was this gem:
"A.J. Daulerio will be the senior writer at Deadspin starting March 31."
The only commenter who noticed this sentence was Ian of Sox and Dawgs, and thus I want to credit him for helping bring it to my attention.
While it's unclear what changes this will mean for Will Leitch, it's clear that Will will be less involved in Deadspin.com after 3/31. The quote refers to AJ as "the" senior writer, after all. As to what this will mean for Deadspin.com's future...it's hard to say. I would just comment that like Favre, Will will be leaving at or near the top of his game instead of being pushed out. That makes me happy, for his sake, even though fans of the site may be temporarily upset or annoyed.
UPDATE: I spoke to Will Leitch to see if I could update this speculative column either way with some facts. Turns out, Will will remain at the site in the same role, and a new role of "senior writer" is being created for AJ. I'm still impressed at how much content Will and Rick were able to publish for just two people, but another columnist or two will help them out quite a bit, I'm sure. So instead of switching out one name for another, Deadspin will have at least 3 full-time writers, which should help them remain at/near the top of the sports blog landscape.
Thanks for noticing. I was surprised no one else noticed that.
ReplyDeleteThat's good news he's not leaving. I don't think it would have been the same if he had gone.
^Yeah, I'm glad to hear he's staying as well. AJ is actually one of the few writers in the sports bloggosphere who could have kept Deadspin.com's view numbers so high, which is why it made so much sense to me that if Will stepped down, AJ would be a replacement.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised more people didn't note your comment, Ian. I wish I would have e-mailed Will first instead of rushing to post, but I wanted to at least mark my territory with a speculative post so I could claim first rights to the story if it were true.
I don't blame ya for posting the story first at all. You did the right thing in following it up to find out if it was true or not.
ReplyDeleteEven in the following comments after mine, no one has said a thing.
Considering I just started working for him, I'm glad he's staying, too. Us self-deprecating midwesterners have to stick together, right MC?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, EP! And by the way, I liked the shots from the CAA tournament. Good to see some on-site coverage from a blogger!
ReplyDeleteIt's easy for me to say this now but....you could kind of see something like this coming. I either read/heard one of Mr. Leitch's interviews regarding his book/Deadspin and he talked about an upcoming Deadspin backlash taking place much like people began to turn on Bill Simmons. The best way to keep all of that at bay is to bring other writers into the fold and have Mr. Leitch back off a little bit, even though he is an excellent writer. It's just how things work. I think the next six months will be interesting as Deadspin begins to evolve more than ever. Just my thoughts, could be way off.
ReplyDelete^ Completely correct, Jack; if no changes are made, the backlash is coming. No one sits on top of the Internet heap for a long time without some re-invention. I think you're going to see lots of larger blogs quietly snapping up new writers. Look at Lozo going to SBB on some weekends, or the army over at AA, or Daulerio now at Deadspin, or Cousins of Ron Mexico starting to write weekday posts for TBL. The writing's on the wall; consolidation is the wave of the future in sports blog land. If my little blog move doesn't work out, down the road you might just get an e-mail from me asking to join the Brigade.
ReplyDelete^ Oh, and if you haven't heard it before, I'll say it again on here...Hire my female and minority friends for paid jobs! SML, D-Wil, Sooze, Kristine, Leave the Man Alone (if she ever wants to come back)...they all deserve to get paid, or paid more.
ReplyDelete