G/O Media’s editorial director, Paul Maidment, resigned Tuesday after weeks of turmoil at the publisher. (Adweek)
Maidment infamously issued a “stick to sports” edict for Deadspin early last week, leading to the exodus of the website’s entire staff. (Daily Beast)
Maidment kicked off the revolt on Oct. 28, when he issued the directive to staff of Deadspin, who primarily cover sports, but who also write about culture and politics. He and G/O CEO Jim Spanfeller further flamed the fire by canning deputy editor Barry Petchesky for bucking their edict and re-posting stories from Deadspin’s past. (New York Post)
Maidment was also one of three executives at G/O responsible for deleting blog posts across Deadspin, Jezebel, Gizmodo and other G/O Media blogs that were critical of the company’s ad strategy, which relied on putting autoplay video ads with sound on every blog post. (Vice)
After the staff exodus, Maidment, a British journalist who previously worked at Forbes and the Financial Times, was left with no employees to helm Deadspin, which is currently on the lookout for a new editor in chief. (Mediaite)