The Times reports that Gawker will retool in preparation for a site-wide focus on politics under the leadership of former Wonkette editor and Salon columnist Alex Pareene, named editor-in-chief last month.
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The heightened focus on politics fits Gawker’s personnel. “I can appreciate the wonky contrarianism of Ezra Klein’s Vox.com and high-metabolism micronews from Ben Smith’s Buzzfeed Politics”, he wrote. Pareene previously wrote for that site before it was sold in 2008.
It’s also not as though Gawker is entering uncharted territory.
As part of this reinvention, staffers at Gawker, as well as at other Gawker Media sites like Jezebel, are getting laid off. The subsequent criticism led to internal strife, prompting the exit of two top editors.
The changes cap what has been a tumultuous year for Gawker. “Never before has a political season promised to be so ripe for the kind of punishing satire and absurdist wit that Alex has perfected over his career-a spirit I saw in action up close when he was a Gawker blogger back in 2009, and also when he was a manager and editorial leader at First Look”. The site was pilloried over the summer after it published an article about a married media executive’s alleged involvement with a gay escort.
As the uproar over the article grew deafening, the article was taken down – a decision that was strongly criticized by many of Gawker’s writers and editors.
The company also will be shelving plans to license Kinja, its troubled publishing technology backbone. After the resignations, Mr. Denton said publicly that the site would be “nicer” in the future and less tabloid in its sensibilities.
Gawker still faces a $100 million lawsuit filed by Hulk Hogan alleging invasion of privacy over the publication of a sex tape.
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“Denton was posturing for NY Times readers, but the message unwittingly sent to the female writers and editors of Gawker was that their boss would sooner name a dead man than any living woman for the position”, Evans wrote.
