Paul Maidment, the editorial director who wrote the memo telling Deadspin staffers to “stick to sports,” has resigned, according to multiple reports. Maidment sent an email out to G/O staff on Tuesday saying that he was leaving “to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity.”
Maidment’s resignation comes just days after Deadspin staffers resigned en masse, in protest of the “stick to sports” edict and the firing of interim editor Barry Petchesky.
Deadspin was part of the family of sites that made up the new G/O Media, which was founded by venture capital firm Great Hill Partners when it acquired the sites, which included Jezebel, The Onion, Kotaku, and others, from Univision.
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller hired Maidment to oversee the family of sites, and it was Maidment’s job to communicate to Deadspin that they would be limited in their coverage to sports.
Last week, after most of the staff had left, a freelance writer published a story on Deadspin, but backtracked and said he would no longer write for the site after he faced immediate online backlash.
Deadspin continued to post stories over the weekend, though under a generalized “Deadspin” byline, which several Deadspin readers theorized was Maidment himself. (Maidment is English, and readers noted the British-isms that were creeping into the copy, though this was just a theory.)
Deadspin has not posted any new stories since 11:49 p.m. on Monday night.
