Nick Denton Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 7:26 AM

I'm amazed we've managed to keep a lid on this news; that, given your naturally gossipy natures, must be a first! We're spinning off three sites: Idolator, Gridskipper and—this one may be a surprise—Wonkette. There were indeed some rumors about Maura Johnston's music blog late last year; they were true of course. For reasons that I'll explain below, both it and our travel and politics sites have better commercial futures outside Gawker than within. (Excuse the corporate lingo: some of it is unavoidable.) But, first, the facts, which will be hitting the wires later this morning, or as soon as you leak this email. Go ahead!

* IDOLATOR is going to Buzznet, a music-focused web and social network. Buzznet recently acquired Idolator's chief rival, Stereogum, and received a big investment from Universal Music Group. * GRIDSKIPPER isn't going far: it's being taken over by Curbed, the network founded by Lockhart Steele, in which Gawker Media is a shareholder. * WONKETTE is being spun off to the managing editor, Ken Layne, former founder of one of the web's very first news sites, Tabloid.net. The title will become part of the Blogads network of political sites, which includes Daily Kos, among others.

Why these three sites? To be blunt: they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did.

Music audiences are fragmented across genres; Maura's Idolator gave Stereogum a good run, but a group with a whole array of music sites will command more attention from record labels than we could. In the case of Gridskipper, our urban travel guide, we could never match Curbed in attention to city-specific content and advertising. As for Wonkette: political advertisers are a strange breed; they don't come through the same agencies our sales people deal with.

I'm relieved we've found pretty decent homes for the three sites, and most of their writers, but we're gutted to lose them. Idolator's Pop Critic's Poll was a tremendous coup—and Patric's bleeding-heart logo for the site was one of my favorites. Gridskipper is so far the most sophisticated travel blog: it entirely deserved its inclusion in Time's list of the 50 coolest websites.

And Wonkette is one of the brands with which the company is most associated; people will be shocked that we would ever part with it. The political site has won an array of Bloggies and other awards; it introduced the word ass-fucking into the dictionary of political abuse; the founding editor's slippers are even on display in the new media museum in Washington, DC. And Ken and his team have brought a new liveliness to the site this election season—validated by the record traffic of the last three months.

So why not wait, at least till the election? Well, since the end of last year, we've been expecting a downturn. Scratch that: since the middle of 2006, when we sold off Screenhead, shuttered Sploid and declared we were "hunkering down", we've been waiting for the internet bubble to burst. No, really, this time. And, even if not, better safe than sorry; and better too early than too late.

Everybody says that the internet is special; that advertising is still moving away from print and TV; and Gawker sites are still growing in traffic by about 90% a year, way faster than the web as a whole. But it would be naive to think that we can merely power through an advertising recession. We need to concentrate our energies, and the time of Chris Batty's sales group, on the sites with the greatest potential for audience and advertising.

The dozen sites that remain represent some 97% or our 228m pageviews per month, and an even higher proportion of our growth and advertising revenue. (Key facts are below, in case anyone asks.) We'll be able to devote more attention to breakouts such as Jezebel and io9, as well as established titles such as Gizmodo and Kotaku, which are becoming utterly dominant in their domains. And, then, once this recession is done with, and we come up from the bunker to survey the internet wasteland around us, we can decide on what new territories we want to colonize.

Both Noah and I are around to answer any questions. On email, IM, or phone. I'm 917-XXX-XXXX and Noah is on 917-XXX-XXXX.

Regards

Nick

————————————————————————————————————————

GAWKER MEDIA KEY FACTS
* A dozen sites, Gizmodo first launched in August 2002, most recent,
io9, in January 2008
* Gawker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Defamer,
Jezebel, Valleywag, io9, Consumerist, Fleshbot
* A record 18 "Bloggie" nominations in 2008, way more than any other
blog collective (one of those was for Idolator)
* Audience of 29.7m unique visitors a month for the whole network, up
82% at annualized rate (http://www.quantcast.com/p-d4P3FpSypJrlA)
* Each individual site has at least 1m uniques or, in the case of io9, soon will
* Pageviews of 227m in March — 219m if you take out the three sites
being spun out — up 89% on a year earlier (Sitemeter)
* For those who measure these things, Gawker is the web's leading
independent blog group

• 
• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M's World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M's merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M's? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.
• 
• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8 p.m. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.
• 
• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.
• 
• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put 'em in the comments.
• (Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

But the moment has come when we have found that we have nothing left to say that can fit on a t-shirt. Plus, coming up with such pith is really tiring.

So we're selling out the rest of our t-shirts and then THERE WILL BE NO MORE. You know what that means: They'll become "collector's items" and nerds will keep them sealed in plastic bags for the future. We've even discounted all shirts to $17.99, and many sizes are already sold out. So buy them now, or forever hold your peace.

Looking for something a bit less spiteful? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts, including Yes, I'm Quietly Judging You, New York: If You Can Make It Here, You Must Have a Trust Fund, and Douché.

We have plenty of other shirts, too, including Yes, I'm Quietly Judging You, New York: If You Can Make It Here, You Must Have a Trust Fund, and I Hate Your Kids.

Douché [The Gawker Shop]

Looking for something full price? We have plenty of other shirts, too, including Douché, New York: If You Can Make It Here, You Must Have a Trust Fund, and I Hate Your Kids.

Yes, I'm Quietly Judging You [The Gawker Shop]

Looking for something cleaner? We have plenty of other shirts, too, including Yes, I'm Quietly Judging You and New York: If You Can Make It Here, You Must Have a Trust Fund.

Pure Filth ]The Gawker Shop]

Looking for something else? We have plenty of other shirts, too.

You're With Me, Leather [Wikipedia]
Yes I Am Quietly Judging You ]The Gawker Shop]

Is this shirt too cheery? We have plenty of other shirts for you to choose from, including I Hate Your Kids and It's Not Whoring If You Do It For Free.

Yes I Am Quietly Judging You ]The Gawker Shop]

Couldn't care less? We have plenty of other shirts for you to choose from, including I Hate Your Kids and Productively Lazy.

Save the Enzos ]The Gawker Shop]

Are you one of those people that insists on buying things full price? No worry — we have plenty of other shirts for you to choose from!

Douché ]The Gawker Shop]

Convinced your assistant really does like you? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts, including Productively Lazy and New York.

Too racy? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts, including Productively Lazy and New York.

Looking for a shirt for your grandparents instead? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts, including Douché and New York.

Too Hollywood for you? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts, including Douché and New York.

Not feeling it? Take a look at our full catalog of shirts.

Productively Lazy [The Gawker Shop]