The scandal-plagued entertainment and gossip site Gawker.com says it will shut down next week after Univision Communications Inc. won a bankruptcy auction to acquire its parent company two days ago.
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“The near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized”, Trotter told readers today.
Univision outbid Ziff Davis, its only rival in an auction for Gawker Media’s assets, on Tuesday.
Gawker was a breeding ground for talented journalists, some of whom went on to jobs at the sort of establishment media outposts Gawker itself frequently mocked.
Oxford University-educated Denton started Gawker.com out of his NY apartment in 2002 with the stated mission of putting “truths on the internet”.
Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster, is buying Gawker Media for $135 million in the aftermath of a $140 million judgment against it in the Hulk Hogan invasion-of-privacy case.
After this incident, Peter Thiel spend millions on funding third party lawsuits against the company. Earlier this year, Hulk Hogan sued Gawker Media into bankruptcy for releasing clips from a sex tape in which he could be seen in bed with the wife of his friend, radio host Bubba the Love Sponge.
Thiel, a board member of Facebook, was outed as gay by a Gawker-owned website in 2007.
Under the terms of the for $135 million deal, the Gawker assets will be integrated into UCI’s Fusion Media Group (FMG), the division of UCI created to serve young audiences that make up the rising American mainstream.
Denton earlier this month filed for personal bankruptcy protection in a bid to stop his assets from being seized.
Gawker’s writers were originally anxious about the future of Gawker.com after Univision made it known that they had a place under their conglomeration for Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jezebel and Jalopnik but made no mention of Gawker.com.
Former Gawker editors and employees mourned the end of the site, and expressed concerns over the lawsuit that caused its demise. “The campaign being mounted against its editorial ethos and former writers has made it too risky”.
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Even if the appeals court overturns this spring’s Florida jury verdict, Peter Thiel has already achieved many of his objectives.
