![]() And bloated tech giants including Google, Meta and Amazon have unveiled thousands of layoffs. The Washington Post recently discontinued its Sunday magazine and laid off its staff. Discovery (including CNN and HBO), NBCUniversal, Vox Media and BuzzFeed. ![]() ![]() There have been layoffs at Paramount Global, Warner Bros. The deep contraction has wrought a wave of layoffs as digital-native, legacy brands, tech giants and major media companies are all cutting staff, reducing spending or both. In part, this is a function of a social-media fueled content deluge that has left so much digital media straining for relevance. But it also proved to be less of a must-read. The new Gawker was more thoughtful, while retaining its sense of irreverence, and it was certainly less mean. But social media has rendered all but the most entrenched gossip rags obsolete.īy the time Finnegan was named editor of the new Gawker, she had shed the scorched-earth brand of journalism that had defined her previous tenure. In its heyday Gawker pioneered a brand of web reporting that combined disdain for authority and cultural sacred cows with shoe-leather reporting that produced scoops that were fun - and titillating. She famously clashed with Denton when she was writing for the site in 2015, mere months before the devastating legal judgment against Gawker for posting a sex tape of Hogan with a friend’s wife. Finnegan had previously worked at The Huffington Post and The New York Times and was the executive editor of BDG’s The Outline. In the intervening years, he apparently labored to find people who would work at the new Gawker. Goldberg in turn fired the remaining staff and scuttled the relaunch. (Denton’s Gawker Media was forced to sell its assets and file for bankruptcy after a $140 million judgment in an invasion of privacy suit filed by Hulk Hogan and financed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel.) Goldberg’s plan to relaunch in 2019 hit a snag when multiple writers and editors quit after their complaints about Goldberg’s choice for editorial director went unaddressed. Goldberg, known for buying distressed digital media assets at fire sale prices, purchased Gawker out of bankruptcy in 2016 for $1.35 million. (When I asked for an official response, Lemann’s press people declined to comment.The road to Gawker 2.0 was not a smooth one. I can’t know for sure how much Lemann’s message may have influenced my publisher, but my former editor there conceded, “Of course it’s worrying, because you could be getting into a court battle with someone who has 400 million times the firepower that you do.” Lemann and his partners also own one of Brazil’s largest online retailers. And their official cancellation letter declared, “As far as Jorge Paulo Lemann is concerned, the animosity is definitely scandalous.” But they had previously said they would wait for the final version before deciding. The head of the publishing house assured me that Lemann’s reaction had nothing to do with the decision, and to be fair, the editorial board didn’t like my first draft, which they found overly critical of my subjects. ![]() ![]() My book contract was canceled not long afterward. And yet my Brazilian publisher soon received a message: He was not happy about my treatment of him. Lemann is also said to be unconcerned with his image. ![]()
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