Deadspin site in open revolt after being ordered to 'stick to sports'

A dispute between management and staff members over the focus of Deadspin is playing out on the popular sports and culture website for all of its readers to see.

Stories are being posted there in open defiance of management's edict that its staff members stick to sports coverage and set aside other topics.

Deadspin advertises itself as "sports news without access, favour or discretion" and is known for a blunt, irreverent attitude. It regularly posts pieces on politics, culture and the media together with sports stories.

But management and staff members have butted heads since the financial equity firm Great Hills Partners bought Deadspin along with sister sites like The Root, Gizmodo and Jezebel earlier this year. Several of the sites were part of Gawker Media, which declared bankruptcy and shut down after losing a legal battle with wrestler Hulk Hogan.

The new company that runs the sites, G/O Media, recently shut down the site Splinter.

Megan Greenwell, Deadspin's former editor in chief, quit in August after posting a long article about her disputes with the new company. "My colleagues and I know that most Deadspin readers do not want the site to stick to sports," she wrote.

Deputy editor recently fired

A deputy editor there, Barry Petchesky, tweeted on Tuesday that he had been fired for not following the edict.

Paul Maidment, G/O editorial director, wrote in a memo to staff on Monday that was reported in The Daily Beast that "Deadspin will write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way." G/O Media did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Despite the edict, Deadspin journalists appeared in open revolt. Posts on wedding dress codes, a stolen pumpkin and a staff member's encounter with three dogs . The phrase "stick to sports" was mockingly attached to each of the posts.

A story by Ray Ratto, headlined "Nationals Fans Didn't Stick to Sports," included a statement saying "that this post doesn't contain a heaping helping of political vitriol isn't 'sticking to sports' any more than inviting the president to a game, playing the national anthem, "God Bless America," or the flyover is sticking to sports. Nobody sticks to sports, ever."

The dispute is also reminiscent of ESPN, amid a controversy over former anchor Jemele Hill's tweets about President Trump, urging its personalities to train their focus on sports and not politics.