In some ways, the article was a classic attempt to tell an untold story. It was also an example of so-called long-form journalism — narrative-driven stories that run many thousands of words and often draw much praise on social media. SB Nation has a long-form vertical, for which Mr. Stout is the editor.

The Holtzclaw article is, of course, not the first story to prompt widespread vitriol. In early 2014, Grantland, the now-defunct sports and pop culture site, published a roughly 7,000-word article titled “Dr. V’s Magical Putter” — about a transgender inventor of a golf club who killed herself — that was swiftly pilloried for invading her privacy and possibly playing a role in her suicide. Gawker retracted a story last summer that accused a married male executive at a prominent media company of seeking to pay for sex with a gay escort. Critics of the story had condemned it as having no news value and being an invasion of privacy. Rolling Stone retracted a 9,000-word article, published in November 2014, about a gang rape at the University of Virginia after the veracity of the events described in the story were seriously questioned.

The specific editorial process that the Holtzclaw article went through before SB Nation decided to publish — and why the article was so quickly removed from the site — is still unclear. Reached by phone on Thursday, Mr. Arnold said, “I really have no comment on it.”

In his note on Wednesday, Mr. Hall, who was on vacation last week, wrote that the article “was not up to our standards as a website. It was not up to our standards as a part of Vox Media. It is not reflective of our ideals, or who we want to be as an organization in the future.” He also said there had been “objections by senior editorial staff that went unheeded,” but he did not elaborate on what those objections were.

Vox Media is planning to conduct an internal review that will be led by Lockhart Steele, the company’s editorial director. Until the review is complete, executives and editors are not willing to say much about the editorial process or about what mistakes were made.

“A major editorial miscalculation was made, and it’s on us that we figure out why and limit the chances of it happening again,” said Mr. Steele, who was at a conference on Thursday in Dana Point, Calif. Jim Bankoff, the chief executive of Vox Media, was on a plane and not available to comment, according to a spokeswoman for Vox Media.

In a brief phone call, Mr. Hall said: “All the help I can give you right now is our editorial note that we posted yesterday.” Reached by phone, Mr. Stout referred questions to Mr. Hall.