Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog » Nick Denton

Nieman Journalism Lab: Gawker stirs up online commenting with new #tips tags

Laura Oliver — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:02:38 +0000

Gawker is encourage commenters and readers of its site to share news, links and tips using a new tagging system.

Using a text form on the site, tagging a message with #tips for example will send it to a ‘tips’ page, where all similarly tagged submissions will be pulled together to create a stream.

Individual hashtags for different sections of the site have been introduced as part of the new Gawker Open Forums, reports Nieman Journalism Lab.

“[A]s the front pages of our sites become ever more professional, it’s even more important to allow anarchy to bubble up from below. The goal is to blur the line between our editors and commenter-contributors,” publisher Nick Denton told Nieman.

Starred contributors – e.g. those members of Gawker’s commenting community that have been given a star rating by the site’s editors – will have their tagged submissions immediately fed to the aggregated pages. Other tagged contributions will need to be flagged up by these starred users.

Full story at this link…

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Nick Denton: Gawker revenues up 45 per cent in first half of 2009

Laura Oliver — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:45:07 +0000

The plunge has already been pretty terrifying for a range of companies from Yahoo and IAC to the newspapers,” writes Gawker founder Nick Denton, referring to his previous prediction that media companies should prepare for a 40 per cent downturn in advertising revenue over the economic cycle.

“But I was wrong in one respect: a few premium internet brands, Gawker’s among them, have withstood the advertising apocalypse.”

Full post at this link…

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Why Nick Denton wouldn’t set up shop in UK

Judith Townend — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:42:33 +0000

From Politico: a report on a panel at the Institute’s Ideas Festival in Colarado, asking ‘What’s the News Worth to You?’

For us Brits, this is the interesting part:

“During the panel’s Q&A, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton sarcastically thanked the American newspaper industry for being so unaggressive, making it possible for ‘thugs’ like him to succeed.

“Conversely, Denton said he’d never set up shop in England. ‘Every single day, those editors get up and try to kill each other,’ said Denton. Not so in the U.S.”

(Hat-tip: Martin Stabe)

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Defamer.gawker.com: Defamer ‘folds into’ Gawker

Judith Townend — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:51:26 +0000

Gawker’s Nick Denton explains the changes here, or you can read a post from Seth at Defamer at this link…

In a nutshell, Defamer is being merged into Gawker.com, and its current writers are to move onto pastures new.

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García Interactive: ‘Death to the free’ – John Duncan on why people should pay

Judith Townend — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:07:34 +0000

Inspired by three online news items (David Carr on NYTimes.com; Gawker’s Nick Denton / Jonah Bloom of AdAge), John Duncan argues on Garcia International that the ‘recession is (ultimately) good for online publishing.’

“There comes a time for most orthodoxies when they just plain run out of doxy,” he writes…”The biggest mistake newspapers made in the internet era was to devalue content by dishing it out for free.”

His point is perhaps clearest in his final paragraph:

“What we are learning now is that a user of a free product does not have remotely the same value as a customer of a paying one.”

Full story…

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Seeking Alpha: the end of micropublishing in the blogosphere?

Laura Oliver — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:40:00 +0000

Nick Denton's decision to merge gossip website Valleywag with Gawker marks the end of the micropublishing business model, according to Felix Salmon.

MediaBistro: Gawker lays off 19 members of editorial staff and cancels page view bonuses

Laura Oliver — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:02:39 +0000

Head of Gawker.com, Nick Denton, announced on Friday that he was letting go 19 members of the editorial staff in a 'preemptive move', including Moe Tkacik, who was only just recently recruited. Page view bonuses for the first quarter of next year are to also to be cancelled in light of the 'upcoming fiscal crisis'.

Managing editor wanted for Gawker

Judith Townend — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:54:56 +0000

This isn’t where we normally flag up job listings (for full job listings visit this part of the site) but this is an interesting one – since it was posted on September 2, the advert has received 6,722 views, and 150 comments. Manhattan media news and gossip site, Gawker.com, is inviting applications for the post of managing editor.

The incumbent, Nick Denton, says that he needs to get back to his ‘other job’, so is calling for a permanent replacement to join the team.

While admitting he’s never watched an episode of the Hills, he does say it’s mandatory to be ‘plugged into both society gossip and mass culture’. Follow the link here for full details.

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Fishbowl NY: Sacked Gawker editor says Denton’s role is a conflict of interest

John Thompson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:11:20 +0000

Gawker associate editor Maggie Shnayerson, who was fired by boss Nick Denton on Sunday night, says Denton’s role as editor and publisher of the media gossip site creates ‘a conflict of interest’.

Shnayerson said Denton was trying to make the site too mainstream.

“Gawker shouldn’t be a depository for the latest viral video,” she told Fishbowl NY

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Wired: Q and A with Gawker’s Nick Denton

Oliver Luft — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:58:52 +0000

Mr Gawker himself tells Wired why the site has such a high turnover of staff, what stories generate the high hits and why staff are paid according to traffic figures.

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