Gawker - History

History

Gawker was originally edited by Elizabeth Spiers, then by Choire Sicha, from August 2003 to August 2004. When Sicha became editorial director of Gawker Media in August 2004, Jessica Coen was hired to be the site editor. The editor position was split between two co-editors in 2005, and Coen was joined by guest editors from a variety of New York City-based blogs; Matt Haber was engaged as co-editor for several months, then Jesse Oxfeld joined for longer. In July 2006, Oxfeld's contract was not renewed, and Alex Balk was installed, while Chris Mohney, formerly of Gridskipper, Gawker Media's travel blog, was hired to become the managing editor, a newly created position.

In the September 26, 2005, issue, New York Magazine reported Coen's salary as $30,000, a number denied in a post on Gawker.

On September 28, 2006, Coen announced in a post on Gawker that she would be leaving the site to become deputy online editor at Vanity Fair. Balk then shared the site with co-editor Emily Gould. Associate editor Maggie Shnayerson also began writing for the site; she replaced Doree Shafrir, who left in September 2007 for The New York Observer.

In February 2007, Sicha returned from his position at The New York Observer, and replaced Mohney as the Managing Editor.

On September 21, 2007, Gawker announced that Balk would depart to edit Radar magazine's website, he would be replaced by Wonkette's Alex Pareene.

The literary journal n+1 published a long piece on the history and future of Gawker, which concluded: "You could say that as Gawker Media grew, from Gawker’s success, Gawker outlived the conditions for its existence."

In 2008, weekend editor Ian Spiegelman quit Gawker over an unspecified salary dispute. He later left a comment on the site denouncing what he said was its practice of hiring full-time employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying taxes and employment benefits.

On October 3, 2008, it was announced 19 staff members were being laid-off in response to expected economic hardships in the coming months. Most came from sites with low ad revenue.

On November 12, 2008, it was announced that further changes were to take place in response to economic hardships with the selling of popular site Consumerist (blog) and the folding of Valleywag with Managing Editor Owen Thomas being demoted to a columnist on Gawker and the rest of the staff being laid off. Accusations have since been made by members and staff writers that owner Nick Denton is looking to sell out all of the Gawker sites while they are still profitable.

In December 2009, Nick Denton was nominated for "Media Entrepreneur of the Decade" by Adweek and Gawker was named "Blog of the Decade" by the advertising trade. Brian Morrissey of Adweek said "Gawker remains the epitome of blogging: provocative, brash, and wildly entertaining."

In February 2010, Denton announced that Gawker was acquiring the "people directory" site CityFile.com, and was hiring that site's editor and publisher, Remy Stern, as the new editor-in-chief of Gawker. Gabriel Snyder, who had been editor-in-chief for the past 18 months and had greatly increased the site's readership, released a memo saying he was being let go from the job.

In December 2011, A.J. Daulerio, former Editor-in-Chief of Gawker Media sports site Deadspin replaced Remy Stern as Editor-in-Chief at Gawker. Also several other editors, contributing editors, and authors left or were replaced, most high-profile of who was Richard Lawson, who went to the Atlantic Wire.