Gawker Media is famous for irreverent celebrity humor, "snarky" social commentary and perpetuating New York City elitism, among other things. But the new redesign of its properties' layouts is the
stuff that "should be taught in business school," writes
BusinessWeek. Why? Because the move should help their advertisers receive more attention. Banner ads that were once on the right have
been moved to the left, which surveys will tell you is the first place the eyes pour over when checking out a Web page for the first time. There are four positions from which to view Gawker.
Essentially, these boil down to indifference, loyalty, jealousy (from other bloggers) and total fear (mixed with frustration). Brand marketers are the ones that fit the last category, as Gawker Media
presents them with extremely attractive user-based content that skewers just about everybody in media. Of all its titles, Consumerist.com is the most damaging, because it's all about brands. The site
bills itself as a guide "through the delinquencies of retail and service organizations," promising to highlight "the persistent, shameless boners of modern consumerism" and yada yada yada. But it's
the highlighting of how big brands muck up their services that have brand marketers worried. If you're a cell phone company, fast-food joint, airline, hotel, computer manufacturer--whatever--and your
product goes on fire (Dell) or your user search data is suddenly made public (AOL), then Consumerist.com will find out about it--and you can be sure, so will others.
Read the whole story at BusinessWeek »
