Tom Turkey isn’t the only one singing the Executioner’s Song this Thanksgiving. Will Leitch crony A.J. Daulerio announced yesterday that his Gawker-owned gambling blog, Oddjack will be shut down on December 2.
Though I have no particular gripe against those in the throes of a gambling problem, it should be noted that if the entire online wagering trade were eliminated, at least 3/4ths of the comment spam CSTB contends with on a daily basis would disappear (the other 25% being an odd mix of cialis, interest rate pitches and uh, Roger Lodge). So fuck the gambling business and those who exist to prop it up.
Speaking of which, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton wrote of Daulerio’s Operation Shutdown, “we’d rather concentrate our energies on sites such as Deadspin, which have buzz and a growing audience, and new launches, which have equal potential.”
The above graph, which Denton helpfully links to, shows Deadspin’s daily traffic dropping considerably from Friday of last week. I’m not sure how you’d call going from 30,000 + visits a day to 20,000 or so “a growing audience”, but perhaps he means that Will’s readers are gaining weight. Denton has the economics degree from Oxford, so I’m certain this makes sense if you keep staring at it long enough.
OK, now you’re obviously just grasping. You happened to have picked the ONE segment of Deadspin traffic that doesn’t show growth … and that’s only because it’s Thanksgiving week and there are obviously fewer people online than there were last week. Look at this graph right here:
http://www.sitemeter.com/default.asp?action=stats&site=s12deadspin&report=33
If that’s not growth, such a thing doesn’t exist. If you think Deadspin is terrible, that’s fine, a lot of times it does. But pretending that it’s not growing, and growing fast, is simply denying reality.
Mike
Mike,
I’m glad your sense of humor is intact. Indeed, I am just grasping. Though the one segment I’ve cited happens to be the one that show’s DS’ MOST RECENT ACTIVITY. If Nick is gonna boast of his property’s popularity, maybe he should’ve done so on before people started getting bored?
and last Saturday and Sunday were Thanksgiving? Denton claims DS is “growing”, yet his own stats show a 30% drop over the course of the last week — heck, I’m online during the holidays, and I’m certainly doing my part to keep their hit count up.
Much as I love your holiday explanation for the dip, I’ll propose another : after everyone had their fill of Carolina Panthers cheerleader pics, the decline was inevitable.
As someone who has purchased advertising for 12XU products on another Gawker Media site, I think I am perfectly entitled to raise these questions. I’m the ultimate concerned party — what have _you_ done to feed Will Leitch today?
In any event, I do take your point that this monumental insult to the intelligence of right-thinking persons will continue to attract attention, such is the cozy, crony nature of NYC’s print and online media scenes, to say nothing of imbecilic readers with shockingly low standards. Perhaps you think it is futile to stand in opposition, but someday your kids will thank me. And if you can’t find anyone willing to let you stick it in them, then someone else’s kids will thank me.