It may again be up to Gawker to find out where the lines are currently drawn. The verdict was widely interpreted as a perceptible shift in how the public and juries view privacy rights.įive years on, freedom of speech is, if anything, more contentious. And jurors sided with Hogan, who shed tears in the courtroom when the verdict came down. Gawker’s original travails began when it refused to take down a 2006 sex tape of Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, with the wife of his best friend, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Bustle has already attempted a Gawker reboot, only to see it collapse before launching after problematic tweets by its editorial director were dug up. The problems independent journalism sites face under ownership of venture capitalists are well-known. But he knows how to build traffic using content that we all hate.” “Goldberg is an opportunist who thought he could buy an asset on the cheap, plus the archives, and get all the sparkle, branding and name-recognition to build a large-traffic site to go with his group – and all of which is antithetical to what Gawker stood for. “There’s no way to capture the old anarchic spirit under the control of venture capitalists. “Anyone who cares about Gawker thinks it’s a terrible idea,” said one. Thus increasing their profits by at least 5 million more than they would have made without the publicity generated from posting the sex tape video. He stated that web traffic to Gawker’s media site rose exponentially. While praising Finnegan as a journalistic talent, a former Gawker staffer said many from the old era are unconvinced by its relaunch. According to his calculations, the video had increased Gawker’s worth by 54 million. “Some great advice I once got was ‘Be less yourself.’ I was 27, and going through a righteous phase that unfortunately coincided with having a national platform on which to write. Finnegan subsequently edited the Outline before it too was sold to Bustle.Īmong her best-known columns, under the heading ‘Unconventional Wisdom: challenging those faux-profound bits of knowledge so often taken for granted’, she reflected on an earlier post in which she had described her boss hitting his head on a lamp during a meeting. Thiel’s crusade against Gawker started after the Gawker-owned tech blog Valleywag, published a post that had outed him as gay.īustle has said the new editor of Gawker will be Leah Finnegan, who had worked at Gawker for a year as a writer and features editor before she took a buyout in July 2015. Sources close to Gawker told the Guardian that Peter Thiel, the German American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who had funded Hogan’s libel suit over a sex tape Gawker had posted online, had also looked to buy the company, with a view to preventing the site and its archive from ever returning to the public domain. The company behind the rebirth is Bustle Digital Group, a company known as a clearing house for a dozen publishing sites, among them Bustle itself, Romper, Nylon and W, which purchased Gawker for $1.35m at a bankruptcy auction in 2018.īustle is the brainchild of Bryan Goldberg, described by the New York Post as “a scruffy, 35-year-old media mogul”. In May a judge denied Gawker’s request for a new trial.But Gawker’s original purpose as an independent publishing meteor could be tough to replicate. The jury ruled in the former wrestler’s favour and ordered Gawker to pay $115m in compensation and $25m in punitive damage.rn In its official filing Gawker said it had $50m to $100m in assets and between $100m and $500m in liabilities.rnĭuring the three-week trial Gawker defended its right to publish the video as part of its celebrity news coverage, while Hogan argued it had been an invasion of his privacy.rn Last year Denton estimated Gawker Media, which owns the sites Jezebel and Deadspin, was worth between $250m and $300m.rn The company does, however, plan to consider other offers as it goes through the bankruptcy process.rn In a statement Gawker’s founder Nick Denton said: “We are encouraged by the agreement with Ziff Davis.”rn Publisher Ziff Davis, owner of PC magazine and, has already made an offer to buy all of Gawker’s assets, reportedly for less than $100m.rn Gawker said it had been forced to put itself up for sale because of “a co-ordinated barrage of lawsuits intended to put the company out of business and deter its writers from offering critical coverage”.rn Gawker told staff it still planned to appeal against the ruling and would continue to operate, but it was now accepting offers to buy the site.rn In March, Gawker was ordered to pay wrestler Hulk Hogan for invading his privacy by publishing a sex tape.rn The company filed for bankruptcy protection, which could allow it to avoid paying the damages.rn London: O nline news site Gawker has filed for bankruptcy after losing a $140m (£97m) privacy case earlier this year.rn
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