Gawker is back. Again. The website known for blunt, gossipy coverage of celebrities, tech entrepreneurs, media figures and anyone else with an inflated ego went live on Wednesday, two years after a failed reboot attempt. (NYT)
Picked up at a bankruptcy auction three years ago by Bustle Digital Group, the site reappeared in a third iteration after Bustle’s headstrong CEO Bryan Goldberg attempted to resuscitate the toxic site twice before. (NY Post)
Bustle Digital Group hired Leah Finnegan, a former Gawker staffer, as the new site’s editor in chief. “The current laws of civility mean that no, it can’t be exactly what it once was, but we strive to honor the past and embrace the present,” Finnegan wrote in the reborn site’s welcome post. (Variety)
The original Gawker, founded in 2002, was abruptly unplugged in 2016 after a Florida jury sided with Hulk Hogan, who sued Gawker Media Group after Gawker posted a sex tape featuring the wrestler. Tech billionaire Peter Thiel spent $10 million to bankroll the libel suit. He said he had been motivated by the site’s 2007 outing of him as gay, something the site did to others on other occasions. (Deadline)