''Defector Media'' is a subscription-based sports blog and media company founded in September 2020 and based in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
.
The Defector blog is primarily written by former employees of the ''
Deadspin
''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.
''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries o ...
'' sports blog. In October and November 2019, all writers at ''Deadspin'' quit ''en masse'' following an edict from the blog's owner,
G/O Media
G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that runs ''Gizmodo'', ''Kotaku'', ''Jalopnik'', '' Deadspin'', '' Lifehacker'', ''Jezebel'', '' The Root'', '' The A.V. Club'', ''The Takeout'', ''The Onion'', and ''The Inventory''.
Histo ...
, to " stick to sports". On January 31, 2020, Tom Ley and several other former writers established an interim site sponsored by
Dashlane
Dashlane is a subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application available on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. Dashlane uses a freemium pricing model with subscription plan option.
Overview
Dashlane was founded on July 6, 20 ...
, which operated over
Super Bowl LIV
Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferen ...
weekend. The site reopened for the week of
April 20
Events Pre-1600
* 1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.
1601–1900
*1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament.
*1657 – English Admiral Robert Blake destroy ...
, sponsored by a
cannabis oil
Hash oil or cannabis oil, is an oleoresin obtained by the extraction (chemistry), extraction of cannabis or hashish. It is a cannabis concentrate containing many of its resins and terpenes – in particular, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabid ...
company.
In July 2020, they announced their new subscription-based sports website, ''Defector Media''. Ley is the editor-in-chief. The company has 19 employees, each of whom own approximately 5% of the company.
Drew Magary
Andrew Schuyler Magary (born 7 October 1976) is an AmericanDavid Roth debuted a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
, The Distraction, on August 13. Defector's website launched in September.
Business model
''Defector'' relies on a
subscription model
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...
for revenue. In an interview with ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'', co-founder Maitreyi Anantharaman, while discussing how the writers worked out the logistics of starting the site, said " eryone had the same priorities, which were editorial independence and worker stake, and we did come to a consensus that this model was the best way to do this thing." Anantharaman also mentioned that the site was "interested in
sustainable growth
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The d ...
" and did not "need a million subscribers or anything to be successful".
Subscriptions are mostly two tiered, at $79 and $119 a year, with the higher cost subscription enabling commenting on articles, access to staff Q&As, and subscription to the blog's newsletter. A third tongue-in-cheek subscription tier at $1,000 per year offers the chance to guest host a Defector podcast, MS Paint artwork by a blog writer, and an "annual video from a writer wishing you a happy birthday, the day after your birthday." Alex Shephard writing for ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' said "Defector has slipped between two subscription-based trends, neither the atomized Substack model nor the scale model being deployed by traditional newsrooms like ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,'' ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
,'' and ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
.''" Shepard also praised the site for being "refreshingly, both very much like the old Deadspin and very much not like the rest of the internet."
As a way of enticing readers to subscribe, the site offers multiple incentives from the ability to comment on articles to personalized birthday videos by staff. In July 2020, it was reported that ''Defector'' had reached over 10k subscriptions on launch day and by September had almost reached 30k subscriptions. By the end of 2020, that number had reached over 34,000.
''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'''s ''"''For The Win" blog reported that the business side of the site is run by longtime ''Deadspin'' reader Jasper Wang, who formerly worked for
Bain & Company
Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was fou ...
, and that both Wang and editor-in-chief Tom Ley can be removed from their positions with a two-thirds vote of ''Defector'' staff.