Never underestimate the power of narcissism. Journalismismīecause Gawker covered the media from the perspective of a smart outsider, calling out the absurdities of the industry, journalists were soon obsessed. Gawker was an experiment in journalism free of commercial pressures and the need for respectability, constrained only by law. At the peak of our confidence, we saw ourselves as the freest writers on the internet, beholden to no one but our readers. But the goal remained to reduce the friction between the thought and the page. Over time, Gawker did develop a layer of editorial management, and adopted the structure of a more recognizable news organization. Gawker was an island, one publicist said, uncompromised and uncompromising. To get an article massaged or fixed, there was nobody behind the scenes to call. And Gawker’s web-literate journalists picked up more story ideas from anonymous email tips, obscure web forums or hacker data dumps than they did from interviews or parties. Gawker’s remit was eventually so broad, news and gossip, that subject matter proved no barrier. This was a potent but dangerous combination. As a group of journalists who had grown up on the web, it also subscribed to the internet’s most radical ideology, that information wants to be free, and that the truth shall set us free. It absorbed the century-old tabloid cynicism about human nature, reinforced by instant data about what people actually wanted to read. ![]() Gawker was an outlier in what became a collection of bloggy lifestyle magazines covering reader interests like video games, sports, and cars.īut Gawker was the one with the most powerful personality, the most extreme expression of the rebellious writer’s id. That was Gizmodo, the technology news site that is the company’s largest property. Gawker was not the first blog launched by the company. To my mind, Gawker’s ultimate fate was predestined. Many liberals and journalists are alarmed by the ease with which a rich and powerful man-a Trump supporter-can use the legal system to destroy an outlet that criticized him and his friends. Mencken still flapping-lingers on the web like a ghost ship, the crew evacuated. The battered flagship-the tattered black pirate flag of H.L. The sacrifice: Gawker has been left behind. They are planning their next offsite meeting for Miami I am relieved they are all safe. The rest of the staff and the rest of the brands-Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Jezebel, Kotaku, Jalopnik and Deadspin-are in the shelter of a Hispanic media company pursuing the broader multicultural and millennial audience. It is a fitting conclusion to this experiment in what happens when you let journalists say what they really think. But in dramatic terms, it is a fitting conclusion to this experiment in what happens when you let journalists say what they really think. In cultural and business terms, this is an act of destruction, because was a popular and profitable digital media property-before the legal bills mounted. It is canny positioning against a site that touted the salutary effects of gossip and an organization that practiced radical transparency.Īs former Gawker developer Dustin Curtis says, “Though I find the result abhorrent, this is one of the most beautiful checkmates of all time by Peter Thiel.” Having spent years on a secret scheme to punish Gawker’s parent company and writers for all manner of stories, Thiel has now cast himself as a billionaire privacy advocate, helping others whose intimate lives have been exposed by the press. Peter Thiel has gotten away with what would otherwise be viewed as an act of petty revenge by reframing the debate on his terms. The flagship site, a magnet for most of the lawsuits marshaled by Peter Thiel’s lawyer, has for most media companies become simply too dangerous to own. ![]() Its former editor, who wrote the story about Hogan, has a $230 million hold on his checking account. Even if that decision is reversed or reduced on appeal, it is too late for Gawker itself. ![]() His proxy, Terry Bollea, also known as Hulk Hogan, has a claim on the company and my personal assets after winning a $140 million trial court judgment in his Florida privacy case. The Gawker domain is also being left behind in bankruptcy. But I will not be going with my colleagues. The staff will move to new jobs on other properties in Gawker Media Group, which are lively and intact, and the whole operation will continue under new ownership, after being acquired for $135 million by Univision. is shutting down today, Monday 22nd August, 2016, some 13 years after it began and two days before the end of my forties.
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