The news site and related companies produce content under a series of original brands such as Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker and Kotaku that reach almost 50 million readers per month. The main blog site for Gawker Media, not Gawker Media itself, will cease operations, effective next week.
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Trotter said CEO and founder Nick Denton informed the staff Thursday and noted in the statement that a bankruptcy court still had to approve Univision’s purchase of Gawker Media.
The Gawker case gained additional notoriety when it was revealed Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel had secretly bankrolled Hogan’s lawsuit.
Gawker founder Nick Denton has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in an attempt to freeze legal actions and prevent wrestler Hulk Hogan from collecting a $140 million jury judgement.
Gawker.com was best known for its coverage of celebrity scandals.
According to CNN, writers for Gawker.com will be shuffled into roles at other Univision divisions or at the other Gawker subsidiaries until the sale is final.
The cost of the lawsuit was partly funded by Peter Thiel whom Gawker had outed back in 2007. “The campaign being mounted against its editorial ethos and former writers has made it too risky”.
Hogan’s beef with Gawker started when the site published clips from a video that showed him having sex with a friend’s wife. It hasn’t finalized plans for what will happen to its archives, but its employees will be transferred to positions within Gawker Media or Univision’s other properties.
“Our other websites, including Kotaku, live on, but losing the lively Gawker.com damages”, tweeted Stephen Totilo, editor in chief of Kotaku. “I don’t think anybody but Gawker would argue otherwise”.
While often entertaining and frequently fearless in its reporting, Gawker crossed boundaries respected by more traditional media.
Univision’s acquisition still has to be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stuart M. Bernstein at a hearing Thursday afternoon.
The company filed for bankruptcy on June 10, a move that temporarily put the brakes on Hogan’s efforts to collect on the verdict.
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And younger readers relied on Gawker to keep them in touch with the news, appreciating its delivery of what Denton in his memo called “the real story, the version that journalists used to keep to themselves”.
