Not sticking to sports is why they failed and needed new management and more invasive ads for revenue in the first place.
This is completely wrong. Gawker Media was a profitable, growing company until Peter Thiel wrecked it and its subsidiary sites were sold to a series of increasingly incompetent owners. Deadspin's "non-sports" articles were regularly among its most widely read. In fact, here's a person whose job it was to sell ads for Deadspin explaining that you are incorrect: https://twitter.com/jillian_schulz/status/118967386127042…
This is wrong.
Gawker media were confident they could operate freely in legal grey areas and fall back on their “freedom of speech” defense when they published Hulk Hogan’s sex tape without his knowledge.
The fact they decided to go to court and challenge Hogan over his claims of defamation was their own poor choice. The only thing Thiel did was bankroll Hogan’s legal team.
A.J. Daulerio’s deposition and subsequent cavalier appearance and court testimony was probably the last nail in their coffin.
In short, Gawker had been playing with fire before and escaped. The fact they thought this would be another easy escape proved to be their undoing.
Nobody but Gawker and their editors who thought they could publish anything, about any celeb is what cost them their publication and their jobs - not just one guy who financially supported Hogan in his civil case.