A Gawker report Thursday said that Nick Denton, Gawker’s founder, told staffers that Gawker.com was ending on Thursday afternoon. 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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Earlier this week Univision Holdings Inc. made the winning $135 million bid to acquire Gawker Media, the publisher of Gawker.com, Deadspin, Jezebel, Gizmodo and other websites.
Gawker announced today that it will shut down its website next week after Univision bought Gawker Media in a bankruptcy auction. “I am proud of what we have achieved at Gawker Media Group, both in our work and our business, never more so than in these last few months”, Denton wrote. On Thursday, the site published a post that revealed, in no uncertain terms, that it would be ceasing operations next week with no new content forthcoming.
The company said near-term plans for what to do with Gawker.com’s coverage and archives have not been finalized.
In 2012, in a move that would ultimately cause the site’s demise, Gawker published a tape of Hulk Hogan having sex with his friend’s wife. Thiel’s vendetta against Gawker raised concerns about wealthy people covertly working to undermine media companies they didn’t like.
A three-week trial ended with the jury ruling in the former wrestler’s favour and ordering Gawker to pay $115m in compensation and $25m in punitive damage.
These verified journalists on Twitter defending Gawker let you know exactly who to look out for when it comes to unethical journalism.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who a decade ago was outed as being “totally gay” by Gawker’s now-defunct Valleywag site, had bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s litigation.
Univision confirmed the Gawker deal on Thursday, saying it will take over the six websites, which reach almost 50 million readers monthly.
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Following the judgement, Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy, and now television network Univision is buying the company’s assets for $US135 million ($175 million). And other Gawker Media blogs will live on.
