Gawker to relaunch in 2019 with new ownership

Bustle owner Bryan Goldberg said he had “no immediate plans to re-launch” Gawker.com when he purchased the site at auction in July for just 1.35 million. Today, Variety reports that the site is set to relaunch early in 2019:

In a memo to Bustle staff Tuesday obtained by Variety, Goldberg said he has hired Amanda Hale as the new publisher of Gawker. Based in New York, Hale most recently was chief revenue officer of The Outline, the culture website founded by Joshua Topolsky (who previously worked at Bloomberg Media and The Verge) that has recently laid off much of its staff.

In the memo, which you can read in full below, Goldberg says, “we won’t recreate Gawker exactly as it was, but we will build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs — and learn from its missteps. In so doing, we aim to create something new, vibrant, highly relevant, and worth visiting daily.” He continues, “Gawker will be completely distinct from our other properties and sit within a separate corporate subsidiary. That said, it will have access to our shared resources, technology, and business platform.”

There are still unanswered questions about the future of Gawker’s archives, which comprise almost 200,000 articles. From Variety: “according to a source familiar with the situation, Goldberg plans to maintain access to the Gawker content archive.”

The future of the other former Gawker Media properties, including Jezebel, Gizmodo, Deadspin, and The Root, remains uncertain; Univision, who bought them 2016, is looking to offload them again. Jezebel recently announced a new editor in chief, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, to replace the departing Koa Beck. Shepherd, previously the site’s deputy editor, has also written about music for Pitchfork.

Here is that memo Bustle staff members received about Gawker:

Team,

Over the last two months, many of you have inquired about Gawker and until now, there hasn’t been much to report. We’ve used that time to have a lot of conversations, which have greatly informed what will happen next. We can now confirm Gawker will relaunch, probably in the first half of 2019. We won’t recreate Gawker exactly as it was, but we will build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs — and learn from its missteps. In so doing, we aim to create something new, vibrant, highly relevant, and worth visiting daily.

Additionally, we are excited to announce that we have hired Amanda Hale, an incredibly talented leader who will help us with the Gawker relaunch and serve as Publisher. Amanda joins us most recently from The Outline, which she was instrumental in launching and building. She is the right person for this important job, and I’m very excited to work with her.

Gawker will be completely distinct from our other properties and sit within a separate corporate subsidiary. That said, it will have access to our shared resources, technology, and business platform.

This is an exciting time for us and we are thrilled to share the news with all of you first. As plans progress and we have further updates to share, we’ll continue to keep the team informed.

Regards,
Bryan