Gawker Media LLC

Former New York Times Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman has a post on her WaxWord blog about last week's lay offs at Gawker Media. After worrying a bit about how the company's pay-for-pageview system encourages bloggers to "reach deeper into the gutter" for traffic, Ms. Waxman offers this tantalizing short history of the internet mixed with some Faith Popcorn-esque future forecasting:

The online world is changing and evolving, and quality is the next big thing. When the internet superhighway first debuted, it was pornography that drew all the eyeballs and clicks. The next wave was the independent bloggers—the likes of Wonkette, and Gawker and Defamer. As those got bought up by bigger companies, or grew into bigger companies, we've been flooded with attitude. Aggregation, and attitude. What about some well-reported facts, surrounded by intelligent analysis, in a timely manner? That's what we're hungry for.  read more »

This was a tough weekend for a certain segment within the media community, but together, they got through it.

It started out with excitement on Friday: A journalistic fact-finding mission to Las Vegas. But even before the plane took off, some key members of the expedition almost didn't make it. Thankfully, they arrived safely and twittered word that others had arrived as well (perhaps a bit blurry), despite the fact that the trip's sponsors did not pay for their transportation to the airport.  read more »

During the flight, something happened on the ground involving someone in media, which they agreed was

This past winter, Paul Tough, a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, brought Emily Gould, a recently retired editor of Gawker.com, to the sixth floor of the paper’s skyscraper on Eighth Avenue. Sometimes, writers meet with the magazine’s editor in chief, Gerry Marzorati, and this was one of those times.

Mr. Marzorati had never before heard of Ms. Gould, he told Off the Record.  read more »

A source deep inside the Gawker Media empire forwards us the news that there are big changes to Nick Denton's blog empire. In an email message from Mr. Denton to his staff—which he pre-emptively encourages them to leak—he announces a pair of sites being sold another being spun off.

Email from Mr. Denton follows:

I'm amazed we've managed to keep a lid on this news; that, given your naturally gossipy natures, must be a first! We're spinning off three sites: Idolator, Gridskipper and—this one may be a surprise—Wonkette. There were indeed some rumors about Maura Johnston's music blog late last year; they were true of course. For reasons that I'll explain below, both it and our travel and politics sites have better commercial futures outside Gawker than within. (Excuse the corporate lingo: some of it is unavoidable.) But, first, the facts, which will be hitting the wires later this morning, or as soon as you leak this email. Go ahead!  read more »

New hire at Defamer. Stu VanAirsdale, a blogger at The Reeler, is joining on-board, and made the announcement here.VanAirsdale lives here in New York and he'll continue even though he'll be writing for the L.A.-centric blog. He'll be writing about the "film business and culture." He's one of several hires that the site is expected to make.

Mark Lisanti, the voice of Defamer for years, left last month.

In the mundane setting of its morning Gossip Round-Up, Gawker blogger Joshua Stein announced this morning that he really is leaving the site this time.

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Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, will take over as managing editor of the company's flagship site, Gawker.com, The New York Times reports, citing three employees.

Mr. Denton had been looking for a replacement since Choire Sicha resigned as managing editor at the end of last month, and indicated in a job listing for the position that he wants the site to break and develop more stories.

On Friday, Nov. 30, readers of an item on Gawker.com which was nominally about author and editor Keith Gessen were told that the Web site's managing editor, Choire Sicha, and editor Emily Gould were quitting.

On Monday, Dec. 3, nightlife editor Josh Stein told The Media Mob, he'll do the same.

"The reasons I'm quitting are kind of personal," he told Media Mob on Sunday night. "It has nothing to do with the job. I'm actually really happy with the job."  read more »

Fresh off its lament for the days when Jay McInerney was cool, Gawker.com lashes out at Cindy Adams for her deranged claim that Michael Crichton has a history of writing best-selling books. The devastating kicker:

A column continuing to run long after it's lost any shred of coherence or even entertainment value? Only in New York, kids.

(Related)

Gawker.com poses a poignant question this afternoon:

Just out of curiosity, when one becomes a parody of oneself does it happen immediately, or is it a gradual process that occurs so slowly that one fails to notice until it's too late, at which point one neither cares nor remembers what having even the vaguest affiliation with anything remotely good or worthy felt like in the first place? Also, what wine goes with intolerable self-smugness?

Unfortunately, it is asking the question about Jay McInerney.

(Related)

Once upon a time—actually, eight months ago!—Vanity Fair published a spread on Gawker Media and its star bloggers. Honcho Nick Denton posed with the editors of Gawker, Gizmodo, Wonkette, and Defamer.

Since so much time has passed, The Transom thought it might be fun to investigate just where those youngsters all ended up!  read more »

Recently, a contretemps between former Gawker editors Jesse Oxfeld and Elizabeth Spiers got a bit out of control. So many former and guest editors! So hard to keep track of their various squabbles and quibbles! Well, until now.... The Gawker Media Buddy List (with apologies to Slate).

With Courtney Love moving out, others are already staking claims on Crosby Street.

Fishbowl is reporting that Gawker Media chief Nick Denton is eyeing space at 89 Crosby Street as headquarters for his blogging empire.

Mr. Denton lives nearby at 76 Crosby Street, where Harvey Weinstein also resides. And with renovations currently underway in Kelly Ripa's duplex penthouse at 76 Crosby, the office might provide a nice refuge.

We're still waiting for a comment from Mr. Denton. Hopefully, he'll IM us back.  read more »

- Michael Calderone

On Sept.  read more »