Kotaku potentially being shuttered after editorial staff puts up article criticizing auto-play video ads

A bit of background: Kotaku is part of a company called G/O Media which also includes, Gizmodo, Deadspin, The Onion and more. G/O Media is owned by a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners.Earlier this week management made the decision to implement autoplay video ads with audio on the website. G/O Media editorial staff published the following article across all sites (this says Deadspin but swap it for Kotaku and an identical article was up there)https://ift.tt/36i1VHK owners of G/O Media removed these articles, and took a number of other actions, letting go key staff members and making editorial decisions across different G/O Media homepages.G/O Media is unionized, and the union immediately pushed back on these decisionshttps://twitter.com/gmgunion/status/1188968816858021888Additionally leading a direct action campaign asking readers to e-mail management. This campaign was so successful that management turned off the forwarding.https://twitter.com/gmgunion/status/1189182884147552256Bringing it back to Kotaku Stephen Totilo says he's not sure if he will be able to steer Kotaku through these rough watershttps://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1189284822272872448Jason Schreier says he doesn't know what's happening nexthttps://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1189243875329789952Other writers seem quiet bleak about the future but insist the site is still operatinghttps://twitter.com/transgamerthink/status/1189281334230958086https://twitter.com/Papapishu/status/1189245254467145728Probably important to note this risk of shutter appears to go beyond Kotaku and is extending to all G/O Media properties.Edit: I wrote audioplay ads when I meant auto play ads with audio. I clarified, sorry haven't had my coffee yet ! via /r/Games https://ift.tt/2Wp0JxH