Sports On Earth has been a corner of the Internet devoted to longform journalism, analysis and the overall cerebral side of sports. But as of this week, it has been gutted, part of a shift by parent company Gannett to separate digital operations from publishing operations.

Meanwhile, SportsGrid.com states its case of the demise of SoE’s, and blames it on the most primal of urges:

It wasn’t like most sports blogs out there — it was a bastion of smart, well-thought out analysis and profiles. That probably played a role in its downfall.

I don’t know the inner workings of Sports on Earth. I don’t know what politics might be going on behind-the-scenes at USA Today. Maybe this was a long time coming for SoE. Maybe it had nothing to do with content and more to do with, I don’t know, cost-cutting, or someone at the company having a bad hair day and taking it out on its most talented and thoughtful publishing arm.

But here’s what I know about sports media, via our little window at SportsGrid: Where were the tits? Where were the asses? Where was the scandal? Because our biggest hits are invariably posts that involve at least one, and hopefully all three, of those themes.

HELLO? PEOPLE LOST JOBS AND LIVELIHOODS.

Poor Hugh Hefner. He’s losing readers to this kind of clickbait. And poor Paulina Gretzky. I fear that more people know her for her Instagram account than they do for all that her father accomplished as a hockey player. Sportsgrid might also remind me of that little gambling snafu Wayne and Ms. Jones got themselves involved in a few years ago. Sex and scandal, right?

But hey, you got me to click. Congratulations. That’s what constitutes “new journalism,” doesn’t it?