Deadspin Staffers Resign En Masse Amid Conflict With Corporate Overlords, Sending Shockwaves Through Media World
Sports and commentary website Deadspin melted down after being hit with mass resignations from staff outraged over draconian editorial constraints and personnel moves by the site’s new owners.
The walkout on Wednesday comes a day after Deadspin’s new owners, the private equity firm G/O Media, fired longtime deputy editor Barry Petchesky in a push to quell a staff revolt over the company’s new “stick to sports” editorial mantra. In recent days, the site’s masthead has lost its features and senior editor, along with half of its staff writers.
As Deadspin’s editors and writers continued to publicly give notice on Twitter, whoever was left running the site disabled comments on all stories in an apparent attempt to censor readers from showing solidarity with the staff or disparaging G/O Media.
In response to the unfurling chaos, and as Deadspin’s very existence seemed in peril, a G/O spokesperson gave a comment to The Daily Beast’s media reporter, saying “we’re sorry that they couldn’t work within this incredibly broad coverage mandate” and that the company was “excited about Deadspin’s future.”
G/O spokesperson on Deadspin resignations: “They resigned and we’re sorry that they couldn’t work within this incredibly broad coverage mandate. We’re excited about Deadspin’s future and we’ll have some important updates in the coming days.”
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) October 30, 2019
But each staff member offered their own poignant rejoinder to G/O Media in their public resignations on Twitter.
.@barry no longer works at Deadspin and that means I no longer work at Deadspin. Bye!
— MALIK BEASLEY SZN ?? NUGGETS 82-0 (@ToLey88) October 30, 2019
Just now I resigned my position at Deadspin today along with many of my colleagues. I have been here only five months but they have been some of the best of my career and I will miss it deeply.
— kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) October 30, 2019
I will also be leaving Deadspin. It was the best four years of my life, and I will miss my pack of wild dogs dearly.
— patrick (@redford) October 30, 2019
hi, so I’m leaving Deadspin. it’s been the best two and a half years of my life, but it’s time to move on
— Lauren Theisen (@theisen95) October 30, 2019
I quit today too https://t.co/W7meIcW0Cx
— Laura Wagner (@laurawags) October 30, 2019
i have quit my job at Deadspin.
— Prince Perspiro (@MadBastardsAll) October 30, 2019
As Deadspin’s staff staged their digital revolt, praise for their principled stand — and derision aimed at G/O Media — rolled in on Twitter from the site’s alumni and other high-profile fans.
Deadspin Today, Deadspin Tomorrow, Deadspin Forever.
— Will Leitch (@williamfleitch) October 30, 2019
deadspin’s owners gambled that their writers were chickenshits like them, and they couldn’t possibly have been more wrong. i think it’ll be weeks and months before a lot of us as readers fully understand what we’re losing in that place
— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) October 30, 2019
There’s a narrative that the media is in trouble because of disruptive tech changes. That’s true in many places. But consider Gawker & Deadspin: tech savvy, profitable, popular. Until one was killed by a rich douce. And now the other is being killed by rich douches.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 30, 2019
Welp, @Deadspin’s dead. Looks like they disabled all comments too, since @JimSpanfeller is a goatfucking puddle of diaperjuice. Way to kill off an excellent (and still profitable) site, you dunce. https://t.co/2VT8vgYVeY
— Cassandra, Pudgy Nobody (@ChrisWarcraft) October 30, 2019
it’s difficult and stressful as hell to quit a bad job situation publicly and i have a lot of respect for the deadspin writers and editors for leaving with their heads held high.
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) October 30, 2019
Of all the stupid ways Deadspin could meet its inevitably stupid end, “sabotaged by the dumbest man alive because he sucked at selling cut-rate insurance ads” is a travesty. Deadspin deserved the chance to sabotage itself on its own terms.
— kyle wagner (@kylenw) October 30, 2019
really proud of my former colleagues at deadspin, who have made a very scary and brave decision. congrats on blowing up one of your most successful sites, @JimSpanfeller, you absolute twat
— guy fieri 2020 campaign manager (@libbycwatson) October 30, 2019
