Gawker, one of the world’s leading news sites is to close down.
Gawker is to cease operation from next week after nearly fourteen years of service. The news comes after Univision successfully bid $135m for Gawker’s six media sites a few days ago.
It is believed that no staffers at Gawker will lose their jobs – as staffers will be assigned to other outlets in the portfolio or be adsorbed into Univision.
In a memo to staff Nick Denton, the site’s founder said neither he or Gawker.com would be included in the new venture with Univision.
“Sadly, neither I nor Gawker.com, the buccaneering flagship of the group I built with my colleagues, are coming along for this next stage.”
Why is Gawker closing?
Gawker filed for bankruptcy after a lawsuit, brought by the former wrestler Hulk Hogan, awarded $140m in damages to the TV star.
The lawsuit, reportedly costing $10m was funded by Paypal co-founder, Peter Thiel. Mr Thiel, one of the world’s richest openly gay men said that he aided the lawsuit because he wanted to curtail the company’s “bullying”.
The company published an article outing Mr. Thiel in 2007.
What was the lawsuit about?
Gawker was sued by Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) after they published a video of him having sex with the wife of a friend from 2007. The trial lasted 3 weeks and Gawker was ordered to pay $115m compensation and $25m in punitive damage.
What will happen to Gawker.com?
In the long-term nobody knows what will happen to the Gawker brand – however it’s six sister sites: Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel, will continue as normal.
