Deadspin writers quit en masse over ‘stick to sports’ memo

Things are spinning out of control at Deadspin.

Multiple staffers quit the news site Wednesday in open revolt of a mandate from top brass ordering them to stick to sports coverage.

At least seven Deadspin staffers appeared to have announced their resignations on Twitter, including features writer Kelsey McKinney, blogger Lauren Theisen and media reporter Laura Wagner.

The internal revolt kicked off Monday after the editorial director of Deadspin’s parent company, G/O Media, issued a memo telling the staff — who primarily cover sports, but also write about politics, media and culture — to “write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way.”

Rebellious staffers soon began filling the site with entirely non-sports stories — and Deadspin’s deputy director, Barry Petchesky, tweeted that he’d been fired for not following the directive.

“Hi! I’ve just been fired from Deadspin for not sticking to sports,” he wrote Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Theisen posted an image she said was of “the meeting where management tried to get us to move past Barry’s firing” — then said she’s done with the site.

“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,” Theisen tweeted.

Staffers griped over the sports mandate — issued Monday by Paul Maidment — in part because they found that many of their non sports blogs were among the most heavily trafficked, sources said.

But G/O Media execs dug in their heels, including removing many of the non-sports stories that had been added to the site Tuesday by day’s end.

“They resigned and we’re sorry that they couldn’t work within this incredibly broad coverage mandate,” a G/O spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re excited about Deadspin’s future and we’ll have some important updates in the coming days.”

The Writers Guild of America East union, which represents the company’s editorial writers, joined the fight on Wednesday by blasting G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller, who has been at odds with Deadspin’s editorial staff since he was named head of the company in April.

“From the outset, CEO Jim Spanfeller has worked to undermine a successful site by curtailing its most well read coverage because it makes him personally uncomfortable,” the Guild said. “This is not what journalism looks like and is not what editorial independence looks like.”

G/O Media also owns The Onion, Gizmodo and Lifehacker — sites private equity firm Great Hill Partners bought from Univision at the time it hired Spanfeller.