De Blasio supports former Deadspin employees: ‘This city is a union town’

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) blasted the management at the website Deadspin after a group of writers quit this week over the focus of the site.

“The incompetent corporate hacks at Great Hill Partners should get out of newsrooms and let their reporters DO THEIR JOBS,” de Blasio tweeted, sharing a statement from the Gizmodo Media Group union. Deadspin is a site under the Gizmodo brand that also includes popular websites such as The Root and Jezebel.

“This city is a union town — we stand with the journalists of @gmgunion and the Deadspin reporters who took a courageous stand this week,” de Blasio continued.

The incompetent corporate hacks at Great Hill Partners should get out of newsrooms and let their reporters DO THEIR JOBS.

This city is a union town — we stand with the journalists of @gmgunion and the Deadspin reporters who took a courageous stand this week. https://t.co/Vq87p0Y20W

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 2, 2019

Paul Maidment, the editorial director at G/O, the company that owns Deadspin, reportedly sent an email to employees on Monday directing them to make sports the “sole focus” of the site’s coverage, The Daily Beast first reported. Deadspin has covered sports as well as culture, politics and media.

{mosads} But instead of following the memo, the staff placed multiple nonsports stories that were popular among site regulars on the homepage, including “The Adults in the Room,” a piece written by former Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell blasting G/O Media.

On Wednesday evening, a group of Deadspin writers tweeted that they were all quitting their jobs after interim editor-in-chief Barry Petchesky posted that he was fired from his position Tuesday for “not sticking to sports.”

Hi! I’ve just been fired from Deadspin for not sticking to sports.

— Barry Petchesky (@barry) October 29, 2019

.@barry no longer works at Deadspin and that means I no longer work at Deadspin. Bye!

— MALIK BEASLEY SZN NUGGETS 82-0 (@ToLey88) 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

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

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) also tweeted his support for the former Deadspin writers this week, targeting G/O CEO Jim Spanfeller. Earlier this year, the financial equity firm Great Hills Partners bought Deadspin alongside its sister sites. 

“I stand with the former @Deadspin workers who decided not to bow to the greed of private equity vultures like @JimSpanfeller. This is the kind of greed that is destroying journalism across the country, and together we are going to take them on,” Sanders tweeted.

I stand with the former @Deadspin workers who decided not to bow to the greed of private equity vultures like @JimSpanfeller. This is the kind of greed that is destroying journalism across the country, and together we are going to take them on.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 1, 2019