Audience Engagement Digital Publishing
1 min read

Deadspin’s Megan Greenwell on dealing with trolls and a bigger mission in sports journalism

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On this week’s episode from the Media Voices gang, Megan Greenwell, editor-in-chief of sports site Deadspin challenges the ‘toy department’ misconception of sports journalism, sets her Twitter filters against the trolls and focuses on work instead of the machinations of a (slightly) dysfunctional parent company.

For those not in the know, Deadspin is a US sports news and blog website, originally founded in 2009 by Gawker Media, but now owned by Fusion Media Group subsidiary Gizmodo Media. The site posts commentaries, recaps and previews of major sports stories, but is perhaps better known for its quirky anecdotes, rumours and viral videos. If the Beano was a sports website, it would be Deadspin.

The site boasts impressive traffic numbers and witnessed 26 million visitors in May. Average site visit duration is just shy of three minutes, double that of newspaper sites like the Guardian, and boasts high levels of repeat visitors and loyal readers. Clearly, they’re doing something right.

In this Media Voices podcast, Greenwell discusses the challenges of being a female editor in what has traditionally been an all-male enclave, how she deals with trolls across her social media channels, and the challenges of dealing with a debt-leveraged parent company.