Gawker
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housekeeping
Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Dear Ryan:
As I head to NBC to run its Bay Area site, I'm leaving you one Silicon Valley gossip blog, used but in good condition. A few thoughts on how to keep it that way. More »
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49
By Owen ThomasComment by RheaPollstry: Is that Owen? Mmmmmm, I do luv me some bears. And working in a bar, no less! My heart is... 4 Responses | Other threads
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nick denton
Extremely literal boss demotes editor to columnist
In the wake of his apocalyptic predictions for the online-advertising market, Nick Denton, the owner of Valleywag publisher Gawker Media, read my offhand quip about how I would soon be writing Valleywag as a column for Gizmodo or Gawker, whichever will take me" as a brilliant business suggestion, and he's taking me up on the idea. (Gawker, as it happens.) Nick, I was joking, but if you really think I have such keen insight into how to manage your Web properties, why not make me a strategic consultant to Gawker Media instead — and give me a hefty raise while you're at it?
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nicholas Carlson: Owen: Now you will have to Write Your Headlines In Caps Too. It's sad how quickly you become use to... 3 Responses | Other threads
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too insidery
Robert Scoble now reports to my ex-boss
This will be hilarious: Self-obsessed videoblogger Robert Scoble, managing director of FastCompany.tv, has a new boss — who's the same as my old one. Noah Robischon is leaving his job as managing editor of Valleywag's publisher, Gawker Media, to run Fast Company's websites, which include Scoble's personal blog, Scobleizer.com. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ArildaLlama: No, Scoble will never make sense. He will however make everyone else at the organization miserable. Want to break... more » | Other threads
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gawker media
Nick Denton: "Publishers are sleeping their way to extinction"
Think things are bad in the media business? You ain't seen nothin' yet. That's the message Nick Denton, the owner of Gawker Media, an online publisher whose properties include this website, lays out in a new essay now published on his personal blog. (A draft I saw was headlined "Publishers Are Sleeping Their Way to Extinction"; he has now headlined it "A 2009 Internet Media Plan." Denton never was much good at headlines.) Analysts project a single-digit increase in online advertising in 2009; we should be so lucky, according to Denton, who writes that a 30 to 40 percent decline in all advertising spending, online and off, next year — a scenario supported by analyses of economic recessions from Sweden to Indonesia. His conclusion? "Publishers should be planning for the worst, now." Here's what Denton's cost-cutting recommendations could mean for his own company. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Alaska Miller: I want to be Nick Denton when I grow up. 5 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
Valleywag cuts 60 percent of staff
We would never sugarcoat someone else's layoffs. Why ours? Gawker Media, our publisher, has told me to cut Valleywag's costs, in anticipation of an advertising recession. In response, I have laid off associate editors Nicholas Carlson and Jackson West and reporter Melissa Gira Grant. They have all been doing excellent work, breaking stories and needling Silicon Valley. But our ultimate boss, Nick Denton, has decided he can't afford them. Paul Boutin and I will continue running the site. Denton's memo: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Jackson West: I'll miss cracking wise in Campfire most of all. Thanks for the opportunity. 6 Responses | Other threads
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nerdfight
Engadget editor admits to creating "Boycott Gizmodo" site
Know that old saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"? Former Engadget editor Ryan Block has put it into practice by tapping former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam — now the site's editorial director — to help advise them on their new gadget startup gdgt. In doing so, Block has ended — or at least set aside — a long-term gadget-blog rivalry which frothed with animosity. (Gizmodo, like Valleywag, is published by Gawker Media.) At times, the competition got dirty — like the time Block created an anonymous blog slamming Lam for a post about the iPhone. More »
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Comment by MagnoliaX12: It has always, and forever shall be known... Gizmodo > Engadget 1 Responses | Other threads
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party report
Leave Julia alone!
The other night, Lockhart Steele, the ex-Gawker Media guy with the porn-star name, threw a lovely, cliquey little party in SoMa. Steele ditched the usual startup-founder blowhards for a pack of writers and editors — I had a national newspaper assignment before my first club soda. But things turned ugly when Wired covergirl Julia Allison traipsed in around 11 p.m. Instead of cheering her, partygoers whom I'd mistaken for grownups just minutes before took turns sniping about Allison behind her back: She's jumped the shark. She's not that pretty. Just look at her arm fat! Bonus hater points to the guy who mimicked Allison's trademark hand-on-hip pose — just out of her view. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: Oh that is Julia. OK. I thought it was Avril Lavigne in 15 years' :O) more » | Other threads
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envy
Does Nick Denton wish he were Peter Thiel?
"Thiel makes me sick!" read the note from Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton. His oddly personal declaration was prompted by a brief in the New York Post about former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel's success as a hedge-fund manager. Thiel will make an estimated $500 million this year running Clarium Capital, a hedge fund. (We reported this a few weeks ago, boss.) It hit me hard: Could Denton actually be jealous of Thiel? More » -
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10 best workspaces
Rank tech's 10 best workspaces
After reviewing our post "Tech's top 10 workspaces" commenter Dweezil complained that our choices were full of "to much modernism bullshit." Commenter Web2PointOhShit tore at everybody:Six Apart's offices seem pretty ordinary to me. Their meeting space is *tiny*. Googleplex's niceties are all about enticing their workers to stay at work longer — yeah, that's real HAWT!. Valleywag offices look like a dump to me.
So, OK, not everybody goes for our taste in brick, exposed ceilings and Googley amenities. Let's find out who's in the minority. Below, vote for your favorites and help us rank tech's 10 best workspaces. More »
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Comment by webwebweb: just visited the UGO Networks offices in the east village, coooooooooooool. more » | Other threads
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cubicle culture
Tech's top 10 workspaces
What makes for an appealing workspace? The envelopes they leave in your mailbox every two weeks. But after that, it comes down to design and amenities. Also, we like windows and brick. Lots and lots of brick. After spending some time on Office Snapshots, we present the ten best-looking offices in tech, below. More » -
10 best workspaces
Gawker Media
Nick Denton's new steampunk sweat shop on Elizabeth Street is the nicest in Nolita. (Full disclosure: I get to work there, and you don't.) Photos by Nick McGlynn -
blogging for dollars
Nick "The Slasher" Denton cuts loose three blogs: Gridskipper, Idolator, and Wonkette
Is Nick Denton going soft? Even his cutbacks are sentimental these days. In the old days, Denton, the publisher of Valleywag and 14 other Gawker Media blogs, would simply shutter blogs. These days, he worries first about finding them nice homes. Such is the velvet-glove treatment he's giving Gridskipper, Wonkette, and Idolator, his blogs about, respectively, travel, politics, and music. The three blogs amount to less than 3 percent of Gawker Media's traffic, he says. Fine, so why keep them around in any form? Silicon Alley Insider has the details on their new owners. More evidence of Denton's increasing namby-pambosity: Instead of threatening to fire leakers, he's encouraging us to post the internal memo announcing the move. Darling bossman, that's no fun. But also no reason to keep the memo from you, dear readers: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: valleywag's the only gawker blog I read, I'd hate to ever see it go more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Calacanis explains how Denton rips off his writers with "best pay in the business"
The week's not complete until bulldog-cute Mahalo chief Jason Calacanis writes in. Today JC emailed twice to call out a gaping hole in the much-discussed New Dentonomics of our 2008 Valleywag pay scale. His numbers are out of date; our new pageview rate for the second quarter is in, and it's $6.50 per thousand pageviews. But Calacanis spotted a bigger slap to the face than the CPM, one so big that Portfolio blogger Felix Salmon will have to do a whole 'nother post now to say he knew it all along. Can you guess what it is? More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by fudouri: 7.50 is including a percentage of the home page sales. I bet average CPM for any particular post will... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Valleywag writer's pay complaint — the 100-word version
Jordan Golson, Valleywag's resident hypercapitalist, is distressed that he's not going to learn the terms of his pageview-based bonus — which, mind you, he'll likely earn on top of his $2,500-a-month base pay — until three days into the second quarter. The ginger whinger made me proud with a headline so sensational that it offended even my boss. But he disappointed me by wasting readers' time, taking a self-indulgent 542 words to get his point across. After the jump, a readable version of Golson's overwrought, underreported screed: More » -
great moments in journalism
Today's five meanest April Fools' pranks
For some of the Web's more respected names, it's a really special day. They get to treat their readers and fans with the contempt they hide most of the year. Below, five pranks today that show just how much the Internet hates you. And I do mean you. More »
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Comment by matto: @WagCurious: If by 'not quite in tune with' you actually mean 'have spent the last 1.5 decades working with', then... more » | Other threads
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gawker media
It's April 1 and I don't know what my salary is
The rate that my employer, Gawker Media, pays its contract writers was adjusted tonight at midnight. The staff of this site has not been told the details of the new pay rate, but we do know that everyone at Valleywag is getting a per-view pay decrease. Senior management is promising the hit is only a "modest reduction." I'm told we'll find out the new pay plan by the end of the week. In the mean time, writers are getting a paycut, but are expected to continue working even though we don't know what we're getting paid. Read on for some background and an explanation of how Gawker writers are compensated. More » -
breakdowns
Valleywag brought down by outage — editor blames sci-fi fans
Coincidentally, the Valleywag crew was chatting in Campfire about how much we loved a new site we'd discovered, Downforeveryoneorjustme.com, right before we had to use it on our own site. Some theories we came up with: Nick Denton, Gawker Media's owner and publisher of Valleywag, likes to bring down his sites occasionally just to watch how his editors deal with the unbearable pressure of not being able to write. As part of Jason Calacanis's new Valleywag charm campaign, Mahalo guides posted so many links to us that it brought the site down. Or, most plausibly, outraged Arthur C. Clarke fans launched a denial-of-service campaign against the unremarkable observation that the deceased sci-fi writer was an admitted pedophile. -
journalist math
Gawker Media firing stuns press corps into innumeracy
For the liberal-arts majors who still dominate the ranks of reporters, simple multiplication is a daunting task. Which is likely why Radar and Silicon Alley Insider have contributed 419 words about the firing of Gawker reporter Maggie Shnayerson, yet failed to answer the essential question: How much was she making? The answer is simple, based on publicly available information: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by stupindus: Damn. Too bad. Did you give her the right Gawker manual? Just write about the 7 deadly sins, with an... more » | Other threads
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nerdfight
Mark Cuban: How dare you write about me!
Mark Cuban was happy to sit with Deadspin blogger Will Leitch for an interview to go into GQ. (Deadspin, a sports blog, is owned by Gawker Media, Valleywag's publisher.) But then Cuban saw Leitch's subsequent post on Valleywag. "While I respect the magazine," Cuban writes on his blog, "I am not a fan of the site [Leitch] works for, or of its affiliated site that the blog ran on. I would not have done the interview had I known he would blog about it for this site." Which is too bad, really. We're normally fans of the outspoken, outrageous entrepreneur-blogger. Except when he engages in phony self-righteousness. "Is this ethical?" he asks. More »
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Comment by zenpoet: @Brian Lam: I agree. I don't see what the problem is for a person to comment on his own work... more » | Other threads
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satire
Tom Cruise's new MacBook Air revealed!
Because you're nosy about it, here's graphical proof that on the Internet, Apple is a much bigger topic than anything else we post about. Yet the video of Gizmodo's cruel CES prank drew 10 times more clicks than our biggest MacBook Air post. Hollywood still crushes all. On Gawker, Nick Denton's mirror post of Tom Cruise's Scientology promo video is closing on 1.5 million views — comparable traffic to all of Valleywag so far this month. It struck me this morning that if I wanted to maximize my Gawker Media traffic bonus pay, I'd stop writing and instead follow Tom Cruise around with a camera. Oh wait, that's what the big pubs actually do. It all makes sense now.
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By Paul BoutinComment by OaklandTechie: Nick Denton is my hero for taking on Scientology's lawyers! more » | Other threads
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richard blakeley
Banned cameraman hawks CES press badge
Richard Blakeley, the Gawker Media cameraman whose antics for Gizmodo drew widespread attention, is selling his press badge — the last one he'll ever get, he says — for $100 on Craigslist. Why is it a collector's item? Because CES has banned him from attending future events after he filmed himself using a remote control to turn off TV screens on the show floor. (Gizmodo, like Valleywag, is owned by Gawker Media, and Blakeley does video work for both sites.)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Brian Lam: American Apparel Ad? You totally got it. more » | Other threads
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satire
More CES sanctions against Blakeley
Star Wonkette commenter FlakJack listed additional punishments the Consumer Electronics Show people should mete out to Gizmodo's TV-remote prankster. Edited version: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by BLAKELEY: @Wabewalker: Now THAT would be a punishment! more » | Other threads
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ces 2008
Gawker staffer banned from CES, "additional sanctions ... under discussion"
Richard Blakeley, the scamp behind Gizmodo's TV-turnoff stunt at CES, has been banned from attending the show. Here's the CEA's official response to the Gizmodo TV-B-Gone prank:We have been informed of inappropriate behavior on the show floor by a credentialed media attendee from the Web site Gizmodo, owned by Gawker Media. Specifically, the Gizmodo staffer interfered with the exhibitor booth operations of numerous companies, including disrupting at least one press event. The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion.
More »
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Comment by dalejo: @c0d3w12: No thanks, just because you like anal play doesn't mean anyone else does. It's a good thing you have... more » | Other threads
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paul boutin
Why I hate you — and I do mean you
Entrepreneurs. Engineers. Bloggers. You keep asking: Why does a writer like me hate people like you? Nick Denton's new traffic-based pay scale has backfired wonderfully, giving me a few minutes to explain it. More » -
online advertising
Why does Digg hate porn? Because it likes money
Fleshbot, a NSFW site published, like Valleywag, by Gawker Media, feels left out. Digg's terms of service do not allow pornographic content, so Fleshbot doesn't benefit from the flood of traffic prominent placement on Digg allows. Boo frickin' hoo, I say. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by YeiZinnikas: I don't really see why advertisers should refuse to let sites with porn content into affiliate programs. I have a... more » | Other threads
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gawker media
Nick Denton likes his blogs a bit dark. But his readers seem to disagree. io9, Gawker Media's sci-fi blog, has been its most successful launch to date, with 750,000 pageviews, followed closely by Jezebel. Shiny, happy futurism and go-girl feminism sell better than bleak wit and sardonic jabs at the powers that be.
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By Owen ThomasComment by raincoaster: Or maybe there is just a larger audience for blogs in 2008 than in 1990-whatever? more » | Other threads
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too insidery
io9's secret design revealed
I'll admit it, I'm jealous: While Valleywag remains stuck with a logo that looks like an IBM monitor from 1982, io9, Gawker Media's newly launched sci-fi site, has gotten a wickedly cool illustration. The future is coming, and it is diabetically adorable. I quizzed site editor Annalee Newitz on the origins of the logo. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by assho: Try and have Hajime Sorayama do a portrait of you, Lisa and the gang. more » | Other threads
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gawker media
io9 launches amidst largest explosion of self-congratulation in history
Valleywag dwells on sex, greed, and hypocrisy. That leaves little room for the merely quirky, edgy, and unprofitable. For that, we present to you io9, a new sci-fi blog published, like Valleywag, by Gawker Media. All of our colleagues are dutifully saying nice things. There will be none of that from Valleywag, thank you very much. Don't get us wrong: We are grateful for the existence of io9, run by surly media nerd Annalee Newitz ("sparkly-crap mobile circuit-board garbage gizmo mass-produced by machines"). More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by fishneversleep: @dexdudee007: Everything will be very cool, until io9 starts covering the future of money. Then the real fight will begin. more » | Other threads
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your privacy is an illusion
Facebook ad reveals blog mogul's bad taste in movies
At last, I've received a real-life, actual Beacon message — the controversial Facebook ad format that reports on your friends' activities elsewhere on the Web. The news flash? My boss, Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton, is going to see Will Smith thriller I Am Legend. This ruins my arthouse-film image of him. Damn you, Mark Zuckerberg!
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By Owen ThomasComment by eze: Dear Whyaduck, you asshole I totally claimed the Groucho Marx avatar already. I'll be watching you, you motherfucker. more » | Other threads
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forecasts
Valleywag's 25 predictions for 2008
Valleywag is of course known for its dead-on accuracy, so our predictions for 2008 need no introduction. Inside, my 25 predictions (made without inside information) cover the futures of Facebook, Google, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, Apple, Yahoo, Gawker Media, AOL, Dell, LOLcats, the president, and more. More » -
self-referential
This just in from Forbes: Apparently Gawker Media, the publisher of Valleywag, Gawker, Gizmodo, and other fine blogs, has changed its name to "Denton Media." Except not. But you know what I really find annoying? This article was written by someone I personally taught how to factcheck. [Forbes] -
hires
Nick Denton to blog again at Gawker
The New York Times reports that Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media and my boss, will take over as editor of Gawker.com, his flagship and our sister site, on January 2. My first reaction to the news: Well, good. This should keep him busy. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Reggie Cameron: So..um..where do I start sending the gifts and which do you prefer: hookers, drugs, or booze? more » | Other threads
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chacha
Hoosier daddy? Indiana reporter trades university beat for university job
When we first began to cover the many close relationships between flauntrepreneur Scott Jones's ChaCha search engine and Indiana University, the Indiana Herald-Times was one of the few local newspapers to closely question the relationship. Steve Hinnefeld of the Herald-Times was even following Valleywag's coverage, and came to similar conclusions: Although nothing legally wrong occurred, IU officials' failure to disclose their ChaCha ties was suspicious. However, since then the newspaper has provided the issue little attention. Why? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by deathbychichi: As an alumnus, I, ChiChi, find ChaCha embarrassing. more » | Other threads
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brooke hammerling
Silicon Valley's secret matchmaker
These days, a startup raising $1.5 million hardly seems noteworthy, so I was inclined to dismiss the news that Curbed Network, a New York-based blog franchise, had brought in that modest amount. This despite the fact that Lockhart Steele, Curbed's cofounder, is a friend and helped recruit me to Valleywag when he worked at Gawker Media, and Nick Denton, Valleywag's owner, is one of the investors in this round. No, I was more intrigued by the name of another investor: Zach Nelson, the Larry Ellison protégé who's CEO of NetSuite, the Web-based software company which has filed to go public. How could these two have possibly connected? A quick reading of the social graph revealed only one candidate: Brooke Hammerling, the hyperconnected founder of Brew PR and Valleywag's original Snacky Flack. The coast-swapping Hammerling says her career as a yentapreneur began when she invited Steele, a baseball fan, to an Oakland A's event hosted by Nelson. Hope you got a cut, Brooke.
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By Owen ThomasComment by jake: could this be the very moment of curbed's financial conception? [flickr.com] more » | Other threads
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fake steve jobs
Fake Steve rags on blog overlords
The best part of this interview with Dan Lyons, the Forbes editor behind Fake Steve Jobs? Where he describes how he tormented my boss, Nick Denton, by slipping in more and more British slang into The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs in an effort to throw him off the trail. Which, of course, succeeded brilliantly. To keep things balanced, Lyons also takes the piss out of Jason Calacanis. How anyone could hate the bulldog-cute entrepreneur that much is beyond me.
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By Owen ThomasComment by redw0rm: Owen - Not sure about the usage here of the phrase "take the piss." It's a UK/Commonwealth favorite, but typically is... more » | Other threads
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self-referential
Maybe these Top 100 Blog lists are meaningful after all
Ten of PC Magazine's 100 favorite blogs are Gawker Media sites. Backscratching is right out as an explanation. As far as we know, the magazine'sSouth San FranciscoMidtown-based staffers have never even met Gawker dark lord Nick Denton, nor anyone from Consumerist, Deadspin, Defamer, Gawker, Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Wonkette or Valleywag. Just as surprising: None of the usual tech A-listers — Winer, Scoble, Calacanis — made the cut, except for media pundit Jeff Jarvis. Gawker staffers aren't that stoked about it. We're far more caught up in this week's cover story about the company in New York magazine, an elite Manhattan publication largely unheard of here in the Valley. You'll never make it through New York's 6,000-word opus, so here's the takeaway: Our core value is outsider rage, but "Gawker blogs maintain standards of stratospherically higher writing quality than other Websites." Also, we reportedly have really great sex and drugs.
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By Paul BoutinComment by flyover: Too lazy to read through New York article right now - any mention of former gawkerer & current NY employee... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Nude webcams okay when looking for money, not when you get it
Justin Kan, the original lifecaster behind Justin.tv, hyped his company on the prospects of seeing him naked or, better yet, in flagranti delicto. But if that was the draw of the site for you, forget it. Over the weekend, Justin.tv banned a would-be lifecaster after a single day of risqué broadcasting, and has since revised its community guidelines. Kan knew that appealing to the sensational side of lifecasting would draw interest, but now that the startup is attracting investors, sensationalism also brings potential controversy. And nothing chases away money like controversy. But what about the adherents to lifecasting? Won't they, too, be chased away if "lifecasting" is redefined as only including the parts of your life that would make it past network-TV censors? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Troyallan: I am sorry but Justin.TV is just full of pervert and pedos. Every channel with a girl is constantly being... more » | Other threads
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quotable
NEW YORK CITY — "Amazon sells porn?" — Overheard in Gawker Media's world headquarters.
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self-referential
Gawker book can't shake Jason Calacanis from its coattails
Even on YouTube, Internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis dogs the every step of Nick Denton, the owner of this blog. A promotional video for a new book from Gawker, a sister site to Valleywag, lists an interview with Calacanis as one of its related links.
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By Owen ThomasComment by PurpleStarfish: Off topic: How come you guys haven't picked this up yet? Was linked from Scoble's blog - [dawnkey.wordpress.com] more » | Other threads
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