Gawker.com Is Officially Shutting Down Operations Next Week
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. The near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized.
Late yesterday reports started trickling out that Univision might kill off Gawker.com after buying all the Gawker Media sites (Deadspin, Jezebel, Kotaku, et al) and just like that, a day later, it actually happened. It’s kind of crazy given how Gawker.com really has been a mainstay in media for over a decade but like I said in the initial blog about the reports, eventually if you make enough enemies through shitty choices (the Hogan sex tape, encouraging people to stalk celebrities for attention, and outing private citizens being a few of the more noteworthy ones) it will catch up to you even if you do it all under the umbrella of journalism.
And killing off Gawker.com really was a win for everyone involved besides Nick Denton and the people who were so sanctimonious about uncovering Hulk Hogan’s dick for pageviews somehow representing a journalist’s role in society. Univision now gets a brand with way less tarnish on it (and presumably even less potential legal liability) and can even make a news site doing the best parts of Gawker without all the shit attached. Gawker’s employees can find new roles and do work without this stigma of being a den of evil like they came off to most people during the Hogan trial. Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel can cut WWE promos and suck each other off for how they conquered this evil menace in media doing scumbag journalism. AND we all got to see Hulk Hogan’s dick and watch him pat his belly after sex while discussing how he ate too much sushi. The system works!