![]() The Thiel-backed litigation included wrestler Hulk Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker over a video the website posted showing the wrestler having sex with his ex-friend’s wife a jury awarded Hogan $140 million in damages in the case. ( Univision sold those sites, known as Gizmodo Media Group, along with The Onion to a private-equity backed G/O Media in April.) Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, had been angry about an old Gawker story that reported he was gay. In 2016, Nick Denton’s Gawker Media was driven to file for bankruptcy and sell six of its websites to Univision Communications for $135 million - excluding - after it was targeted by lawsuits funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. The deal included an archive of nearly 200,000 articles from Gawker, whose tagline was “Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s news.” In a memo to BDG staff last fall, Goldberg said, “We won’t recreate Gawker exactly as it was, but we will build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs - and learn from its missteps.” Goldberg was the winning bidder for a year ago, paying $1.35 million for the site, which has been inactive since August 2016. Two writers hired by Gawker - Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw - quit in January over what they said were offensive comments made by Griffith (and Goldberg’s unresponsiveness to their complaints). Gawker staffers who have been let go include editor-in-chief Dan Peres (former EIC of Details), editorial director Carson Griffith and publisher Amanda Hale, who previously was chief revenue officer of Joshua Topolsky’s The Outline (which BDG bought earlier this year). News of BDG’s plans to table the relaunch of Gawker were first reported by the New York Post. “For now, we are focusing company resources and efforts on our most recent acquisitions, Mic, The Outline, Nylon and Inverse.” In his memo to Bustle staff this week, he said “Gawker will be completely distinct from our other properties and sit within a separate corporate subsidiary.” That being said, Gawker will still have access to the resources, technology, and business platform that are shared by other Bustle properties.“We are postponing the Gawker relaunch,” Bustle Digital Group said in a statement. He has not yet commented on his plans for the backlog of stories. He has been the subject of some unflattering stories in that archive. For that price, he got the website and its archive. Goldberg purchased Gawker out of the bankruptcy estate in July for $1.35 million, according to Reuters. ![]() Univision is now exploring the sale of Gizmodo Media Group, along with its stake in Onion Inc. Univision renamed the suite of sites Gizmodo Media Group and transferred Gawker back to the bankruptcy estate after deciding it was too risky a gamble to keep running. Spanish language broadcasting company Univision acquired Gawker Media, which included Gawker and other sites like Jezebel, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo, for $130 million. Gawker’s first iteration shut down in 2016, shortly after after filing for bankruptcy in the wake of legal trouble concerning Gawker’s sensationalistic journalism and failure to respect privacy of its subjects. Amanda Hale, formerly chief revenue officer of The Outline, will act as the site’s publisher. In a memo given to CNN, Goldberg said that the site will not be the same as it was, but that it will be built on the same legacy, while avoiding the mistakes made by the original. Bustle Digital Group CEO Bryan Goldberg, who acquired Gawker in an auction this summer, said that the site will be relaunched early next year.
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