gawkermedia

In March of this year, Gawker Media lost their Hulk Hogan case. A Florida court awarded Hulk Hogan $115 million in damages, and while Gawker owner Nick Denton originally said that they were going to fight tooth and nail, at the end of the day Denton filed for bankruptcy and was forced to sell Gawker Media. The sale happened this week, and Univision purchased the property (which includes seven sites) for $135 million. At first, it was unclear if Univision was going to keep the entire property intact, but the announcement came yesterday: Gawker.com is closing down, but the other sites (Deadspin, Jezebel, etc) will remain. Univision is also throwing out Nick Denton. This was the announcement on Gawker:

After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media’s six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company.

Nick Denton, the company’s outgoing CEO, informed current staffers of the site’s fate on Thursday afternoon, just hours before a bankruptcy court in Manhattan will decide whether to approve Univision’s bid for Gawker Media’s other assets. Staffers will soon be assigned to other editorial roles, either at one of the other six sites or elsewhere within Univision. Near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized.

[From Gawker]

While Gawker, as a media organization, had faults and made some bad editorial decisions, I am going to miss “the Gawker voice” in the blog world. I could easily get lost in their stories, going on clicking binge that started with a super-involved analysis of why Tupac is alive and living in Cuba, and ended up with a video of a black child being brutally assaulted by a police officer.

I’ve noticed some queasiness around the reporting of Gawker’s closure by other media outlets. While Gawker wasn’t the most respected outlet out there, they did significantly change the way readers absorbed and dissected online content, which is something that every media company wishes they could say. There’s also a general queasiness about an American tech oligarch using a shady cash infusion to a media company’s enemies as a way to shut down said media company. The questions around Peter Thiel’s actions – not to mention, Peter Thiel as a person (who doesn’t think women should get to vote) – are still lingering. And no one knows what this will mean for journalism and online media going forward.

In any case, goodbye, Gawker. We’ll miss you. The description of Duchess Kate-as-cocker-spaniel is still a moment of inspired genius.

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Photos courtesy of Gawker, Getty.