{"id":226100,"date":"2021-04-14T01:12:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T22:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/firebrand-writer-tapped-to-bring-gawker-back-from-the-dead\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T01:12:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T22:12:29","slug":"firebrand-writer-tapped-to-bring-gawker-back-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/firebrand-writer-tapped-to-bring-gawker-back-from-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"#Firebrand writer tapped to bring Gawker back from the dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Firebrand writer tapp<\/a>ed to bring Gawker back from the dead<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Bustle Digital Group has hired a firebrand writer from Gawker\u2019s past to lead its third effort at resurrecting the snarky gossip site it picked up at a bankruptcy auction nearly three years ago.<\/p>\n

Bustle had little to say on the effort except to confirm it hired Leah Finnegan as editor-in-chief, first mentioned as a one liner in Ben Smith\u2019s media column<\/a> in the New York Times earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Bustle also confirmed the launch efforts but declined to discuss timing, editorial mission or staffing plans. <\/p>\n

Finnegan worked at Gawker for one year during its heyday as a writer and features editor before taking a buyout in July 2015. Despite her short tenure, she gained a reputation for pushing the envelope at the Web site, already famous for its irreverent posts, and for feuding with Gawker founder Nick Denton.<\/p>\n

Some media<\/a> watchers are already predicting trouble ahead for Bustle owner Bryan Goldberg.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of Gawker back in 2002\/03 when it was a buzzy blog site centered on the New York media world, praised the hiring of Finnegan while also predicting clashes between Goldberg and the staff. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s great and I hope it works,\u201d Spirers tweeted Monday. \u201cBut Bryan [Goldberg] and I have talked about Gawker before and I told him the first thing he\u2019s not gonna like is that the Gawker team will want to unionize. And he will push back on it. And not want to fight his VCs. And he has no incentive to fight them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finnegan tweeted about her new gig Sunday evening, saying \u201cthe rumors are true!,\u201d but Media Ink was unable to reach her further comment. <\/p>\n

In addition to her time at Gawker under Denton, Finnegan also spent a year at Bustle as editor-in-chief of The Outline before Goldberg pulled the plug on it at the start of the pandemic. Before working at Gawker, the Brooklyn resident spent 2 1\/2 years at the New York Times. <\/p>\n

Goldberg has attempted to resuscitate Gawker twice before, but it has stubbornly remained a zombie site since 2016 when then-owner Denton lost a $140 million invasion-of-privacy lawsuit to Hulk Hogan that forced it to shut down and auction off its sites to new owners. <\/p>\n

Finnegan arrived the year before it shuttered, just as Gawker was attempting to rein in some of its more outlandish posts \u2014 leading to a bit of a culture war between Gawker\u2019s still bloodthirsty writers and its top executives. <\/p>\n

One such feud burst into public view after Gawker ran a story outing a top executive editor at Cond\u00e9 Nast, a married family man who reportedly tried to arrange a liaison with a gay escort on a business trip<\/a>. The article triggered a furious backlash for the apparent gay shaming of a relatively unknown executive, and a number of major advertisers pulled ads. <\/p>\n

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\"Gawker
Leah Finnegan worked at Gawker for one year during its heyday as a writer and features editor before taking a buyout in July 2015. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A day after the explosive story was published, Gawker\u2019s top executives voted to pull it down and Denton issued a lengthy apology saying the story should never have been published. <\/p>\n

Finnegan was reportedly one of the leaders of the editorial uprising against Denton that followed.<\/p>\n

According to an article in Capitol New York in July 2015, Finnegan accused Denton of selling out to please advertisers in what was described as a heated shouting match. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know how much money we lose all the time, because of cancellations in ads?\u201d Denton is reported to have said in the exchange with Finnegan. \u201cI cannot, I cannot believe that you are actually saying this!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMake this into an advertising company then!,\u201d she fired back, according to the report by Peter Sterne. \u201cSay what it really is! It\u2019s not a place for journalism!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gawker
Gawker founder Nick Denton shuttered Gawker in 2016 after losing a $140 million lawsuit.<\/figcaption>
William Farrington<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an all-hands news<\/a>room meeting, Denton tried to quell the storm by explaining that what had began as an upstart blogging site a dozen years earlier had grown up and needed to have different standards. It had become something of a rarity \u2014 a digital site with no venture backers that had grown to a half dozen sites and was actually profitable.<\/p>\n

Finnegan and Denton also reportedly argued earlier that year after he criticized her for a story she had written in January 2015 attacking the unusual names actress Zoe Salandra had given her two kids, Cy and Bowie. \u201cZoe Salandra Gives Birth to Hipster Scum,\u201d wrote the headline she affixed to her own story. <\/p>\n

According to an article in Business Insider at the time, Denton had emailed Finnegan on the article, \u201cI know you\u2019re joking, but to anybody but your hardcore fans, this is just nasty. You\u2019ll regret writing that headline.\u201d He worried that one day Salandra\u2019s children would Google themselves and become very upset. <\/p>\n

Finnegan blasted back, \u201cI never regret speaking my truth and criticizing a poor celebrity naming choice, Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n

But around the time of the all-hands meeting, pro wrestler Hulk Hogan\u2019s lawsuit against Gawker, which was being secretly bankrolled by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, was just getting underway. Gawker in 2012 had published the video showing Hogan having sex with the wife of his then-best friend. He claimed it was an invasion of privacy. <\/p>\n

The suit would eventually wreck the company that was making a profit of about $4 million on income of $44.3 million by 2014. Denton lost the case in Florida and was ordered to pay $140 million, resulting in Denton shutting down the popular site as well as its sister titles, which were sold to a variety of new owners in the bankruptcy sale. <\/p>\n

Gawker, the original site and still the flagship of Gawker Media by the end was considered a poisoned asset and commanded the lowest price of the bunch that had included Jezebel, Deadspin and several other sites. <\/p>\n

Enter Goldberg who made millions as the co-founder of the Bleacher Report, but who was derided by the old Gawker as a \u201cclueless scamp\u201d once he launched the women-focused BDG. He agreed to pay only $1.35 million at a bankruptcy auction in July 2018 for the Gawker name and archive beating out two other bidders.<\/p>\n

Goldberg seemed to have little idea what to do with the site once he owned it, however, and waited months before he even revealed a relaunch plan intended originally for mid-2019. <\/p>\n

\"Carson
Carson Griffith was hired in November 2018 to lead Gawker\u2019s first relaunch effort.<\/figcaption>
Patrick McMullan via Getty Image<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bustle in November 2018 hired Carson Griffith to lead its first relaunch effort. But before the site got off the ground, the Daily Beast on Jan. 23, 2019 wrote a story accusing Griffith of making racist and homophobic remarks<\/a> to her tiny relaunch staff. <\/p>\n

Its only two staffers quit and over 70 staffers at BDG\u2019s other properties called for Griffith to be fired over the remarks. She insisted she was not racist or homophobic, but stopped working from the office in the midst of the uproar (although she stayed on the BDG payroll until August 2019 after a second relaunch effort was also scuttled). <\/p>\n

Last year Griffith sued the Daily Beast, the article\u2019s author Maxwell Tani and the site\u2019s editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman\u00a0for defamation, claiming that she was a victim of a hit job and that she was never personally contacted by the Daily Beast prior to publication. <\/p>\n

Bustle hired an outside law firm to investigate and eventually cleared her of any wrongdoing. A New York Supreme court judge on March 24, meanwhile, rejected the Daily Beast\u2019s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. <\/p>\n

In 2019, Goldberg tapped former Details editor-in-chief Dan Peres to attempt to bring Gawker back from the dead as a gossip site without the vicious streak that destroyed the original version. But by July, Goldberg once again pulled the plug. Peres went on to land a job as the editor-in-chief of Ad Age. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if by tapping Finnegan, Goldberg now wants to revive the snarky site that grew to attract 23 million unique viewers a month at its peak, despite occasional clams of recklessness. And there are questions if a new Gawker can even gain traction in the current digital world. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy view hasn\u2019t changed since the first time they tried to relaunch,\u201d said a past Gawker editor in chief Gabriel Snyder. \u201cI strongly believe the world needs a publication like the old Gawker, but I fail to see why it has to be called Gawker \u2026 Just let it be.\u201d \u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Firebrand writer tapped to bring Gawker back from the dead” Bustle Digital Group has hired a firebrand writer from Gawker\u2019s past to lead its third effort at resurrecting the snarky gossip site it picked up at a bankruptcy auction nearly three years ago. Bustle had little to say on the effort except to confirm it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/bryan-goldberg-gawker.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[101837,72323,83687,4935,101946],"class_list":["post-226100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-13-21","tag-digital-media","tag-gawker","tag-media-ink","tag-nick-denton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}