insidery
”Buy This Harvard-Free Keith Gessen Book And Win The Culture War!
Once in a rare while, an item comes along that embodies the entire cultural zeitgeist of a particular time and place. Ladies and gentlemen of the creative underclass, we have just such an item in our hands today. And it's up for sale to YOU, the public! The players in this strange saga: Harvard-educated literary it-boy and haughty heartbreaker Keith Gessen; Gawker, sworn enemy of literary culture and pimp of kittens; and a copy of Gessen's poorly reviewed but terribly important book, All The Sad Young Literary Men, with a very special twist. Here's the entire story of how this item came to be, and how you can—and must—buy it, in order to win the culture war and house the homeless: More »Emily Gould Handles Her Own PR, Calls Out Everyone
We will begin by thanking Emily Gould—former Gawker editor, recent NYT Magazine cover story, and recently-sold book-writer—for providing us with content on a slow news day before a holiday weekend. She's chosen the perfect time to publish a long screed on her blog, titled "How Your Emily Gould Gossip Sausage Gets Made." Whoa! Everyone gets called out. We're all crazy from the heat this week! More »Stop Reading This Site Or We'll Shoot These Bloggers
"The only answer, from the company's perspective? To keep getting more traffic—but to pay the producers of that traffic less for each pageview. So for the first two quarters of 2008—and now the third, according to a new memo regarding the pay rate for the quarter that began this week—the company has reduced the rate of pay per pageview." [Radar]Stop Talking About the Crazy Person
Former Gawker commenter Newtojezebel has been banned for nine months now, which is probably some sort of record, but apparently people continue talking about her, all the time. She was banned for seeming a little unstable, so naturally she decided to contact former Gawker editor Alex Balk, via fax for some reason, to ask him to please email all of you to explain that she is not him. Balk, of course, is too busy writing on issues of great international import at Radar to do this on his own, so we've decided to help. You follow? Just read it!Keith Gessen Is Morally Superior To You
We don't know Keith Gessen and haven't read his book (and never will!), and obviously we're biased because Gawker turned us evil and we like Choire (and Emily!) but he has a very important essay (THE MOST IMPORTANT TUMBLR RANT OF OUR TIME) that he tumble logged about how people need to stop being mean to him because THEY ARE WHORES INFECTED BY THE STAIN OF WRITING GOSSIP and HE WRITES ABOUT CANCER, CANCER GODDAMMIT. Also stop calling him a blinkered, privileged asshole because that is EXACTLY WHAT REPUBLICANS DO and also, and we quote: "Everyone went to the same six schools. Everyone has dated everyone." It's funny because it is insanely incorrect! Oh my god we haven't even gotten to the worst part. More »Where Are They Now
Choire compiled the ultimate Gawker Alumni Report. Go see what every former editor is doing right now! (Except, uh, Maggie?) (Update: Nevermind! Now it is comprehensive, except of course for the OLDE WEEKEND CREW) [Radar]Your Twitter-Stalking Power List
Andew Krucoff asked Rex Sorgatz which Twitter feeds he should follow. If those names mean something to you, you may already be familiar with this list. (Which is, in Krucoff's words, "a little tech, a little New York, a little media and lots of girls, girls, girls.") If not, here are the Internet Glitteratti's most personal thoughts and dreams, expressed in 140 characters or less. After the jump, the 23 people you Tweet in heaven. More »Gawker Sells Three Sites
Gawker Media Publisher (and acting Gawker Managing Editor) Nick Denton just sent word around that he's sold three sites. April Fool's! Except for real this time! Maura Johnston's Idolator, the music industry gossip and news site, goes to Buzznet—the "music-focused web and socialnetwork" that recently bought Stereogum. Gridskipper, the urban travel site, goes to Lockhart Steele's Curbed network. And Wonkette, Ken Layne's political news site, is now Ken Layne's alone. If you're looking for official comment from us, we think all three sites will be better off under ownership by people who actually care about their respective topics (even though no one should ever buy blogs). Denton's internal email is below, because he's off this morning and why not beat the Observer to running it? More »
Our New Office Finally Makes Us Feel Safe, Warm
It's been hard, working in a poorly-insulated plate-glass storefront office all this time, on full display for the whole neighborhood. There was that goddamned front door that never completely shut, and what if an irate commenter or story subject barged in? Now we have a new office! It's on Elizabeth Street, and it's on the fourth floor. There will be no more typing in fear. There's even a shower, for those all-nighters when a big sex-tape story breaks. And there's a phone booth, for crying in!More »
Whoring Out Jezebel
It's a bittersweet moment. Jezebel has been Gawker's most successful ever launch, and Conde Nast's acquisition of the women's site is the ultimate validation. But it's heartbreaking to let Jezebel go, and part with Anna Holmes, Dodai Stewart, Moe Tkacik, Tracie Egan, Jennifer Gerson and Jessica Grose, the writers who brought a new tone and intelligence to coverage on the web of fashion, media and relationships. It wasn't an easy decision. More »Scenes From Yesterday
pareene: omg sheila is in JAIL
nick: hunh?
nick: what?
pareene: ha! her mom just emailed me. she was picked up for drinking in public last night!
nick: and they put you in jail for that?
pareene: if they feel like it!
pareene: i mean usually no but it's not unheard of. she probably mouthed off.
pareene: ANYWAY we are not allowed to post about this, according to mrs mcclear
nick: well, someone is going to
nick: can sheila blog from jail?
bloggers
Why No One Should Ever Buy Gawker, Boing Boing, Or TechCrunch
Portfolio, which Condé Nast started because there were no other credulous business magazines, has a story on why media companies should buy blogs, which is of course entirely wrong. Here's why Gawker Media, TechCrunch, Boing Boing and every other blog making over a million dollars should never be for sale. More »
commenters ftw
The Nick Denton Julia Allison Photomosaic
The metaphor is made incarnate. Nick Denton has always credited himself with starting Julia Allison's career through Gawker's constant coverage of her every professional and personal move. Of course he can argue that the young media personality makes herself a target by writing forty blog posts a day, mostly with photos of herself, or photos of herself holding photos of herself. Conversely, the more Allison rises to fame, the more Denton's profile rises as a star-maker. All of which is perfectly expressed in this photomosaic, in which commenter Heather Watson combined 625 Julia-pixels to make one big portrait of Nick. Watson provides a poster-sized version for your bedroom wall.
scientology
Scientologists Haven't Even Thought About Suing Gawker
When a Scientologist lawyer wrote to Gawker asking for the removal of a Tom Cruise video, she was not threatening to sue, and in fact a lawsuit has not been "contemplated, let alone decided," and anyone who says so is irresponsible and rumormongering and just generally not on board, a church rep rells the Times. In the same story, an NYU lawyer reaffirms that Gawker is within its rights, but Scientology's lack of action may have more to do with the fact that Gawker is not alone: Google and a host of others have disseminated newsworthy material about the church in recent days.Her name is Megan Carpentier, not Carpenter. Defamer post on Brad Redfro is here.



















