Update 2: Following the mass exodus of writers, G/O Media released the following statement:

Yikes G/O Media just released a statement criticizing the traffic on non-sports Deadspin stories: "While amusing, our readers haven't actually come to Deadspin for stories like 'Classic Rock, Ranked,' or 'You're Goddamn Right It's Layering Season,' or 'It's OK to Logoff.' " pic.twitter.com/docWlyca3a — Max Tani (@maxwelltani) October 31, 2019

Barry Petchesky, who was fired on Tuesday, cast doubt on the statement:

FYI this is demonstrably false. According to our analytics department, since the start of the year, non-sports posts have on average double the traffic of sports posts. — Barry Petchesky (@barry) October 31, 2019



Update 1: On Wednesday afternoon, the day after G/O Media management fired longtime writer and editor Barry Petchesky, multiple members of the Deadspin team quit the company in protest of management's policies. Tom Ley, Laura Wagner, Lauren Theisen, Kelsey McKinney, Chris Thompson, Patrick Redford and Albert Burneko all announced their resignations on Twitter, while Billy Haisley is also out. Drew Magary, Dan McQuade, Luis Paez-Pumar, Giri Nathan, Dom Cosentino, David Roth and Samer Kalaf joined them on Thursday:

I resigned from Deadspin this morning. That was a fun time you and me had there all those years, wasn't it? Let's do it again sometime. — Drew Magary (@drewmagary) October 31, 2019

OFFICIAL STATEMENT: I have self-yeeted from Deadspin — Samer (@Samer) October 31, 2019

I just quit, too. Deadspin was a good website. — Dom Cosentino (@domcosentino) October 31, 2019

I've tendered my resignation from Deadspin. You can listen to the Deadcast if you want to learn more about why, or you can ask me in a few days or something. — David Roth (@david_j_roth) October 31, 2019

Deadspin's new owners wouldn't publish my Wildwood boardwalk t-shirt column this summer. I should have quit months ago, instead of just now. — Dan McQuade (@dhm) October 31, 2019

Here's something I never thought I'd say: I just quit my dream job at Deadspin.



The last 11 months were the best I've ever had, and working with the smartest writers on the internet was a privilege. — Luis Paez-Pumar (@lppny) October 31, 2019

it was three years of big dumb freedom. i just resigned from Deadspin pic.twitter.com/rAd68r4cki — giri (@girinathan) October 31, 2019

I quit today too https://t.co/W7meIcW0Cx — Laura Wagner (@laurawags) 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

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 have quit my job at Deadspin. — Prince Perspiro (@MadBastardsAll) 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

I've resigned from Deadspin. — Dracubert Nosferatko (@AlbertBurneko) October 30, 2019

Investigative reporter Diana Moskovitz had previously announced on Tuesday that she would be leaving the site. Meanwhile, it appears that the comments section on Deadspin — where commenters have been voicing support for the writers in recent days — has been removed. Comment sections on other G/O Media properties, such as Gizmodo and Kotaku, are still active.



Previously: G/O Media fired Deadspin deputy editor Barry Petchesky on Tuesday after he disobeyed a company memo decreeing that the site "write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way."

Hi! I've just been fired from Deadspin for not sticking to sports. — Barry Petchesky (@barry) October 29, 2019

Prior to his termination, Petchesky had published a series of tweets criticizing G/O Media management for "unilaterally" deleting posts that had criticized its implementation of auto-play features — saying that staff was "upset with the current state of our site's user experience" and "does not control the ad experience on the site."

Following the dissemination of the "stick to sports" memo, Deadspin went on a publishing spree of explicitly non-sports related content (and marking each story with a "STICK TO SPORTS" badge), including a story about dogs and why it was okay to boo Donald Trump at the World Series.

Deadspin, reportedly told yesterday by G/O Media to stick to sports, is running a bunch of very good and very not-sports stories on its front page right now pic.twitter.com/aZaMgva6xI — Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) October 29, 2019



Many Deadspin staffers cried foul over Petchesky's firing.

It is insane that a man who does not care about what we do, and clearly does not read the site can fire not one but two EXCELLENT Deadspin editors and kill a politics site in the span of two months. — kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) October 29, 2019

they fired the best person in the company and the best sportswriter in the business, over four blogs — Prince Perspiro (@MadBastardsAll) October 29, 2019

Jim Spanfeller is a real piece of shit — Laura Wagner (@laurawags) October 29, 2019



The developments come two months after Deadspin EIC Megan Greenwell quit the site. The "stick to sports" direction was a sticking point for Greenwell and G/O Media's management, and Greenwell told the Daily Beast "I have been repeatedly undermined, lied to, and gaslit in my job." Greenwell also posted a lengthy article on the site on her last day where she railed against management:

A metastasizing swath of media is controlled by private-equity vultures and capricious billionaires and other people who genuinely believe that they are rich because they are smart and that they are smart because they are rich, and that anyone less rich is by definition less smart. They know what they know, and they don't need to know anything else.

[Deadspin]



In the immediate aftermath of the firing, Gizmodo Media Group's Union wrote that G/O Media's actions "would not stand."

Earlier today, @JimSpanfeller, CEO of G/O Media, fired our colleague and longtime Deadspin Deputy Editor Barry Petchesky. This will not stand. We will have updates soon. — GMG Union (@gmgunion) October 29, 2019



G/O Media editorial director Paul Maidment told CNN media reporter Kerry Flynn, "We are sorry that some on the Deadspin staff don't agree with that editorial direction and refuse to work within that incredibly broad mandate."