Gawker.com Will Cease Publishing

It’s the end of an era, as the curtain comes down on Gawker.com after 14 years prodding and pontificating on the media industry.


According to a statement from founder Nick Denton that was reported on the site, the flagship publication -- which was not included in the planned acquisition of Gawker Media’s other sites by Univision -- will suspend operations permanently next week.

Univision plans to continue operating six other publications in the Gawker Media portfolio, including Jezebel, Gizmodo, io9, Kotaku, Deadspin, Jalopnik, and Lifehacker. Most of Gawker.com’s current editorial staff will be transferred to new roles at these other sites or with their new corporate parent, per Univision’s agreement to retain 95% of Gawker Media’s employees.

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It’s unclear what fate awaits Gawker.com’s voluminous archives.

The news of Gawker.com’s closing comes not long after a disastrous $145 million legal judgment against Gawker Media forced the company to declare bankruptcy.

In March, a Florida jury found in favor of Terry Gene Bollea, better known as professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. He sued the site for invasion of privacy after it published part of a sex tape he said was made without his knowledge.

It was subsequently revealed that Bollea launched the lawsuit with financial backing from Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who pursued a vendetta against Gawker for revealing he was gay back in 2007.

6 comments about " Gawker.com Will Cease Publishing".
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  1. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network, August 18, 2016 at 5:43 p.m.

    Didn't Peter Thiel once say that the USA began going downhill as a result of women being "allowed" to vote?

  2. larry towers from nyu, August 18, 2016 at 5:53 p.m.

    "Peter Thiel has used his money to to obliterate the constitution. Sad little man...."


    Pete Theil ain't the government. The only thing he obliterated was the unfettered invasion of privacy by an online tabloid.

  3. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network replied, August 18, 2016 at 6:16 p.m.

    Larry: I despise tabloids as much as anyone, but while what Gawker published about Thiel may have been personally embarrassing, it was accurate. Thiel has often made controversial and very public comments, which he has every right to do.

    And he also has the right to use his money to bully those he doesn't agree with. But that doesn't make what he did "right."

  4. Phillip Nones from Mullin/Ashley Associates, Inc., August 19, 2016 at 8:20 a.m.

    Couldn't have happened to nicer people ...

  5. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network replied, August 19, 2016 at 5:12 p.m.

    "Couldn't have happened to nicer people"?
    Are we sure about that?

    What will we think when it DOES happen to "nicer people"? ... which it will, unless we protect the rights of those we despise as much as we do those we agree with. That's what the ACLU is all about.

    Gawker is not the real issue here. The issue is the ability of someone with a ton of money to shut someone up.

  6. Tom Siebert from BENEVOLENT PROPAGANDA replied, August 22, 2016 at 4:34 p.m.

    It most certainly could have happened to more deserving publications and people. 

    For all its flaws, Gawker touched a lot of stories other publications did not dare. THAT, I suspect, was the real reason Thiel went after them -- not the gay outing, not the Hulk Hogan scandal. And Thiel is probably just the face of a much larger cabel that was out to sink Nick Denton & Co. As usual, there is surely more to this vendetta than the "Official Story."

    Let's not forget it was Gawker who first reported on Bill Clinton's two-dozen-plus flights on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's "Lolita Express" to "Orgy Island." Or that Gawker was among the first mainstream pubs to beat the drum for the release of the 28 classified pages of the 9/11 Investigation. Or that they published the Sony leaks at length. And email leaks from the Clinton campaign that showed how its operatives manipulated the media into using the campaign's preferred terminology. The list goes on. Which is probably why Gawker won't. 

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