Gawker to shut down again as parent company BDG lays off 8% of staff
Snark is dead — again!
Gawker — the irreverent news and gossip website resurrected in 2021 after being forced out of business when it lost a $140 million lawsuit filed by wrestler Hulk Hogan for publishing his sex tape — is shutting down for a second time.
Bryan Goldberg, the controversial CEO of Bustle Digital Group, announced Wednesday he is scrapping the money-losing site as part of a wider shakeup at his media company.
BDG is cutting 8% of its 700-member workforce across publications that include lifestyle titles Bustle, Elite Daily, W Magazine and Nylon.
“We were spending real money on [Gawker]. Annual budget in the millions and it operated at a financial loss,” Goldberg told The Post on Wednesday. “There was virtually zero revenue. We were passionate about it and we funded the losses via the other properties.”
Goldberg, who famously spent $1.4 million in 2021 to buy a two-cornered hat worn by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, scooped up the defunct Gawker for $1.35 million at auction in 2018.
“It was always going to be risky; it was gutsy, but we knew it was something that was going to take a long time to get going and it’s more uphill now,” Goldberg said. “It was a different era when we bought the property in 2018. The world today is unrecognizable.”
The site’s checkered past hindered its ability to throw its weight around, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.
“Gawker came with way too much baggage and it was impossible to sell advertising,” the source said.
“They also weren’t allowed to write anything political or remotely controversial, which killed the spirit of what it once was.”
Goldberg blamed the economic downturn for forcing his hand, telling The Post, “Advertisers don’t want to take risks right now.”
“We hired talented editors and writers and launched a product we were proud of, but we’re just not in a position to commit more capital to it,” Goldberg added.
In a memo to BDG staff, Goldberg wrote: “After experiencing a financially strong 2022, we have found ourselves facing a surprisingly difficult Q1 of 2023. BDG has made the decision to reprioritize some of our investments that better position the Company for the direction we see the industry moving.”
Gawker employed around 11 staffers — all of whom will likely need to find new jobs, The Post has learned.
The site’s editor-in-chief, Leah Finnegan, broke the news to the disheartened staff in a tweet Wednesday.
“Well, after an incredible 1.5 years, BDG has decided it is done with Gawker 2.0,” Finnegan wrote. “Can’t say enough about how proud I am of the site and all the brilliant people who worked to create it, and what a staggering shame this is. I had an absolute blast, and I love you.”
Goldberg didn’t expect a Gawker 3.0 to resurface in the future.
“I don’t see a realistic possibility of buyers at this moment, especially ones who want to run it as a media publication,” he said.
Social media users wasted no time in roasting Goldberg for shuttering Gawker.
“This mfer spent more buying napoleon’s hat ($1.43m) than he did on gawker ($1.35m),” tweeted Lawrence Dunn.
Another tweeted: “Has anyone f–ked up New York digital media more than Bryan Goldberg?”
Gawker, launched by British-born muckraker Nick Denton in 2002, started out as a New York City-based lifestyle and culture blog that was focused on celebrities and the press.
The site gained a mass following for its snarky style of journalism in which millennial writers used expletives while taking on powerful figures.
In 2007, Gawker published a blog post that outed tech billionaire Peter Thiel as a homosexual.
Thiel would get his revenge by bankrolling Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker after the site published a two-minute clip showing the wrestler having sex with the wife of a friend.
In 2016, Hogan won a nine-figure settlement, including $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
Gawker and Hogan eventually reached a $31 million settlement.
Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an early angel investor in Facebook, later revealed that he paid $10 million to help finance the lawsuits.
He said the financial support for Hogan’s legal efforts was “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done.”
Gawker was unable to pay the massive settlement and ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Its other websites, including Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik and Jezebel, were sold off while the flagship site was shut down.
