US Internet publisher Gawker Media Group Inc said on Aug 18 that it would shut down its news and gossip website Gawker.com next week after Univision Holdings Inc successfully bid for the Internet publisher’s six other websites.
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Gawker founder Nick Denton’s beloved gossip site may be shuttering – but he’ll still collect a paycheck for the next two years, according to a new court filing.
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.
The Univision sale was approved by a judge presiding over the Gawker Media bankruptcy.
Gawker Media properties include its namesake site, the women-focused Jezebel, tech-oriented Gizmodo and sports site Deadspin. As it turns out, Hogan’s lawsuit was secretly funded by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel, who had been outed as gay in an earlier Gawker report. Denton and Gawker are appealing that ruling, but the outcome of that process will have no impact on the website’s future, he confirmed.
NEW YORK – Founded in 2003 as a gossipy blog about Manhattan’s media elite, Gawker pioneered the irreverent, snarky tone that has become ubiquitous online.
In March, a US jury ordered that wrestling star Hogan be allowed to collect $140 million in total compensation after Gawker published a videotape of him having sex with a friend’s wife. After an outcry that the post was misogynist and unnecessarily violated O’Donnell’s privacy, Gawker went on the defensive and published a follow-up post to explain why it published the account.
Denton, an outspoken a former Financial Times journalist, for now does not plan on going to Univision. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 10 in the wake of the Hogan verdict, which was issued in March.
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She landed a New York Times Magazine cover story about the perils of oversharing online – in which she overshared even more about her romantic relationships – which she eventually expanded into a book of essays called “And the Heart Says Whatever”. The video was eventually released and Gawker published it last week. “They may have always been biased, maybe a bit scandalous, but they were always 100 percent honest”, he wrote in an email.
