The bid by Ziff Davis, which owns PC Magazine, was said to be worth about $90 million to $100 million. The sale is being conducted through a court-supervised auction, which could see other bidders emerge to offer a higher price. Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Life on the Content Farm is a weekly column about internet media written by the last relevant blogger.There's no denying it anymore: Gawker Media's legal battle against wrestler Hulk Hogan has crippled the company, as it filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell itself to fellow digital publisher Ziff Davis. What are the responsibilities of a media outlet to portray world occurrences? Where does the First Amendment stop applying? What is relevant news? Call it ethics, journalism, reporting, or showing a touch of humanity towards a private individual, but right now that purpose of media is in the hands of a St. Whenever a media brand is put on trial, the purpose of media is questioned. Posting controversial content about an individual could make your site perceived as an intolerant bully as opposed to the criticism site. Many media brands have learned to stay away from a tone that seems negative or incendiary because the mere presence of something resembling snark limits the growth of a community.
Positive content farms sell for millions. Profitable media doesn't become the trending content.Įspecially now that the internet has been cleaned up. Instead, stay relatively neutral, keep it clean, and just keep expanding reach. There is no one piece of content, such as a pro-wrestler's sex tape', worth losing everything over. Perhaps the lesson of Gawker is that outside investors sanitize content for the purpose of sustainability. It doesn't matter that Nick Denton largely kept Gawker independent, without outside funding until the legal threat of the Bollea lawsuit. Gawker's media legacy is now being written by the same content farms that use similar strategies to keep the hits coming and the ad dollars pouring in.
#GAWKER MEDIA TRIAL#
Now, Gawker is on trial for the clickbaiting sins of the era when content farms were still called blogs, and blogs doubled as illegal hosting sites for video, mp3s, and photos.
#GAWKER MEDIA FREE#
It's a medium where the limits of free speech and media rights can be tested, even if that meant the next realm of content would blur the lines between pornography and clickbait.
To Gawker, online media is a place where the pressure of outside investor expectations can blur a philosophical mission, or the ability to leave one behind. We care too much about our reputation among other writers, and too little about the concerns of venture capital and corporate investors."
In a 2015 memo, Gawker CEO Nick Denton wrote, "…maybe it is also a recognition that we can never play the viral traffic game as shamelessly as Buzzfeed. It paved the way for many future media company strategies, while Gawker largely stayed true to its desire to remain independent from the constraints of outside investors. Gawker has made its name by curating the most relevant news and non-news, applying an editorial tone of snark that was widely accepted as normalcy during the days of the formative blogosphere. These were long before the days of reposting Instagram content and inferring subtext in tweets to fuel celebrity beef. Perez Hilton, TMZ, and The Dirty seemed to exist for the sake of kicking up dirt. Before themes of tolerance and acceptance became a built-in part of internet vernacular, the internet was for lifting the veil on celebrity and feeling like an insider for getting 'scoops' beyond what could be said on television or print. It's a bit disorienting to watch a media company stand trial for posting the type of content that began to feel somewhat regular and ubiquitous. It has generated headlines every day, generating more uniques and pageviews off the excerpts of a celebrity sex tape that Gawker originally posted in 2012. Gawker Media civil suit, in which the wrestler Hulk Hogan is seeking $100 million in damages from Gawker, began on March 7. The repercussions can range from lack of profitability, to audience ceiling, to $100 million civil lawsuit. This may be a sign that your media brand has gone from being revered to disregarded as fodder. Gawker has become the trending content, covering itself like a celebrity or a trending meme.