Gawker is said to retool as politics site

By Ravi Somaiya, New York Times News Service

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 | 11:44 p.m.

Gawker.com, a site that pioneered the knowing, irreverent tone that has come to define Web journalism, will switch from covering New York and the media world, as it has done since its founding in 2003, to focus on politics.

The change, which is part of a broad reorganization of the site’s parent company, Gawker Media, was announced in a memo to the staff Tuesday.

The site, wrote Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton, “will ride the circus of the 2016 campaign cycle, seizing the opportunity to reorient its editorial scope on political news, commentary and satire.”

Politics, writ large, “has provided the scene for some of Gawker’s most recognized editorial scoops,” he said, citing reporting on Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto smoking crack cocaine and the power of Fox News.

“Is there any doubt,” he wrote, “that the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, a contest between reality-defying fabulists and the last representatives of two exhausted political dynasties will provide rich new opportunities for sensation and satire?”

In an interview, Alex Pareene, Gawker.com’s editor, said he wanted to define politics broadly, and it would include coverage of big business, the media and culture when appropriate.

“There is going to be a lot of campaign coverage because this campaign is great and a dream for any writer. But we’re not going to become Real Clear Politics,” he said, referring to a political news site.

“There will be a sort of satirical tone and satirical approach to reporting real news,” he said, citing John Oliver, whose HBO show combines aggregation, reporting and humor.

Gawker, Pareene said, will be hiring editors, and at least one political reporter. In an email to the company’s staff, John Cook, the executive editor of Gawker Media, said two reporters, Allie Jones and Sam Biddle, would head out on the campaign trail, while Ashley Feinberg will “obsessively monitor the dark and hilarious lunatic fringes on the right and left.” Tom Scocca, currently executive features editor, will begin writing a column, as will Pareene.

Gawker, Cook wrote, “will take a ‘Daily Show’ approach to covering the ever-intensifying culture wars, documenting, satirizing and reporting on the ways that political disputes are refracted in every aspect of our popular culture.”

The broader changes to Gawker Media follow a controversy over the summer after Gawker.com published an article about a married male executive who was apparently seeking a liaison with a male escort.

Faced with widespread criticism, including threats to withdraw advertising, the site removed the article. Two of the company’s senior editors — Tommy Craggs, the executive editor of Gawker Media, and Max Read, the editor of Gawker.com — resigned in protest. They were succeeded by Cook and Pareene. Denton said publicly that the site would be “nicer” in the future and less tabloid in its sensibilities.

The company will now focus on its seven core sites, which include the technology site Gizmodo and the sports site Deadspin. About a dozen smaller sites will be shuttered, Cook said in his memo, including Valleywag, which covered Silicon Valley.

Some of the areas of coverage that those sites focused on will now be addressed by the remaining seven sites. Jezebel, he said, will now “become the primary voice for celebrity and pop culture coverage in the network.” Gizmodo, which recently hired a new editor, Katie Drummond, from Bloomberg, will take over the coverage of science fiction, fantasy and futurism that was previously handled by the site io9.

Seven people will lose their jobs in the revamping, although six jobs will be created. Plans to license Gawker’s content management system, Kinja, will be shelved.

Gawker.com, the first site founded by Denton, had been seen as the quintessential Manhattan media and gossip publication of the Internet age — a destination for ambitious, young writers eager to cover the industry and the powerful figures who populate it.

It has been no stranger to turmoil itself, with frequent changes among its top newsroom leadership, scandals over subjects it has covered or materials it has published. Disagreements in its staff have often broken into public view. But the announcement Tuesday represents a more fundamental change of direction for the site and the company.

The shift in focus is an acknowledgment, Denton wrote, that the quality and engagement of an audience were more important than its sheer size. “In today’s crowded and confusing digital media world, you should focus on your strengths and have a clear message for your audience,” he wrote.

Heading into 2016, he said, the company will seek to extend the lifestyle sections on each of its sites, promote product recommendations — a growing source of revenue for Gawker Media, which takes a percentage of sales that come through its sites — and expand its video offerings and live events.

It will, like many other media organizations, be happy to reach readers wherever they are, Denton said, including “Apple News, YouTube and Facebook Instant Articles.”

“The first blogs were a reaction against the idiocy and pomposity of mass media,” Denton said in an interview by Instant Messenger on Tuesday. “Now social media is dominated by the same stories that would have made the local television news. We’re in an era of mass social media. I think smarter readers are seeking refuge in subcultures.”

Gawker Media attracted more than 50 million unique users in the United States in September, according to comScore, and more than 100 million globally in October, according to Quantcast.