Staff at the sports website Deadspin are quitting en masse after a series of clashes with parent company G/O Media since Monday which left the future of the company uncertain.
On Monday, the staff at Deadspin were told to stick to writing about sports but refused and instead published a series of non-sports posts on Tuesday. This resulted in the firing of editor Barry Petchesky for “not sticking to sports” and further complaints from Deadspin staff.
Also on Monday, the staff at Deadspin and other G/O Media sites had published posts encouraging readers to send in complaints about autoplay ads on the site. These posts were then removed by management at G/O Media.
Today the tensions have come to a head and multiple Deadspin staff have announced that they’re quitting.
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The local union, GMG Union, has issued a statement about the resignations claiming that the stick to sports memo “is and always has been a thinly veiled euphemism for don’t speak truth to power.”
A G/O Media spokesperson has told The Daily Beast that there will be updates on the future of Deadspin soon.
“They resigned and we’re sorry that they couldn’t work with this incredibly broad coverage mandate. We’re excited about Deadspin’s future and we’ll have some important updates in the coming days.”
