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Gawker Prepares To Get On The Campaign Bus, And Maybe Get Kicked Off
The company closes websites and lays off staff as Gawker's focus shifts to politics.
Gawker editor Alex Pareene said he's not worried about his reporters losing out on campaign access or micro-scoops as the site, once known for puncturing the egos of Manhattan's media machers, shifts its focus to politics.
"If they burn someone’s press secretary, it’s not going to be the end of the world," Pareene told The Huffington Post. "We don’t have to rely on access. We’re going to be putting people on the trail, but we’re not going to be a Beltway, access-driven political site."
Pareene once pilloried political elites as a writer for D.C.-based blog Wonkette, which Gawker sold in 2008, and later for Gawker and Salon, for which he famously wrote an annual hack list. He became executive editor of Racket in 2014, a Matt Taibbi-led satirical site that was shuttered after a long incubation period, and returned to Gawker this year as special projects editor.
He was recently named Gawker editor, and on Tuesday, the company announced a re-tooling of its flagship site amid broader changes in direction and resources. Gawker Media executive editor John Cook said the company would close sites focused on Hollywood (Defamer) and Silicon Valley (Valleywag).
While the biggest change coming to Gawker flagship, some Gawker Media sites will benefit in the reallocation. Sports site Deadspin is getting two new staff writer positions, and women-focused site Jezebel will hire an editor for a health, beauty and self-care.
The shifting of priorities comes four months after Gawker faced a huge backlash for reporting that a little-known publishing executive had solicited an escort, a story later scrubbed by management. Gawker Media's executive editor and the flagship site's top editor left as a result.
Gawker founder Nick Denton on Tuesday outlined the realignment in a memo in which he said the company needs a clear focus to compete in "today's crowded and confusing digital media world." Gawker, he wrote, is "a news company, with industry-leading advertising and technology colleagues providing critical support for our journalistic mission."
Cook acknowledged in a separate memo that the "shift in focus will necessarily mean that certain kinds of stories that Gawker has trafficked in in the past will go by the wayside, and we can’t reshape the site’s focus without shifting personnel." Gawker had broadened its coverage in recent years to include general news, culture, and celebrity gossip.
The New York Times reported that 10 Gawker Media staffers would be laid off. One of them, Taylor Berman, told HuffPost that colleagues received no advance warning about the layoffs, which included two months of severance pay. "Most staffers found out which of their colleagues had been fired after the dismissed staffers' Slack accounts were deleted," Berman added. Gawker COO Scott Kidder, who has been with the 12-year-old company for a decade, also announced he was leaving.
Yet Gawker is now hiring. Pareene said the now politics-geared site is seeking an experienced reporter who may feel constrained working at an outlet with a more neutral or measured style. He said Gawker also is looking for a senior editor and, in keeping with the site's tradition, hopes to cultivate new voices.
Every new Gawker editor inevitably shifts the tone of the site, with coverage often following his or her interests and obsessions. Pareene said that since Gawker would already trend in a political direction under his stewardship, management decided to go all-in. Now, he said, Gawker has "an opportunity now to be a distinct voice in a crowded media landscape."
The Gawker reporter will not be objective, explicitly partisan, or "in the tank for any candidate," Pareene said. "I think people are going to be open about their views, and we all have our views, but institutionally we’re not for anyone."
He indicated a willingness to antagonize the presidential campaigns when necessary. "If Sam Biddle gets kicked off the bus for a great story," he said of the former Valleywag editor soon heading out the trail, "that’s worth it to me."
Gawker won't be the first bomb-thrower on the campaign trail. Following in the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson, reporters like Taibbi and the late Michael Hastings have taken politicians and the press to task. Still, critical looks at the campaign circus more typically have come in the form of magazine articles or longform pieces online rather than sustained, daily reporting.
Though it remains to be seen exactly what Gawker will become, Pareene was adamant that it won't be another Politico or Talking Points Memo, sites aimed at political junkies.
"We’re going to have commentary as Gawker’s always had," Pareene said. "And we’re going to make people laugh more than Politico, I would hope. Although Politico is a very funny publication."
Judah Robinson contributed reporting.
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Gawker Media chief Nick Denton announced major changes for his flagship site and throughout the company.
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