A new media brand is rising from Deadspin’s ashes

It’s called Defector Media. It’s from the team that quit in last year’s Great Deadspin Meltdown. And like the Deadspin of old, it’s a sports blog.

But Defector’s approach to the journalism biz has media gazers going 👀:

• It’s employee-owned — writers control their IP and a 5% stake in the company.
• That makes it a high-profile example of an emerging model: the media co-op.
• Subscriptions are Defector’s game. Eyeballs drove Deadspin’s ad revenue. Defector’s plans include a $69/year option for us plebes, and $25k/year for the “Mysterious Benefactor/Sicko Lawyer.”

Defector’s also noteworthy for what it isn’t: It ain’t on Substack. As Jacob Donnelly put it: “Each person could have gone and launched their own publication. Instead, they realized that working together and bundling from the start makes the case much easier to get paying subscribers.”