Who Owns Gawker?

Nick Denton launched Gawker in 2002 as the flagship of Gawker Media, the blog network that defined early digital media's snark era. Edited at its peak by talents including Elizabeth Spiers, Choire Sicha, and later editors who shaped its voice, it covered media, politics, celebrity and New York culture with a ruthless insider tone that made it required reading for journalists.

Gawker's scoops, including the Rob Ford crack video and decades of media industry revelations, built both its reputation and its legal exposure. Its collapse came through the Hulk Hogan case: Gawker's 2012 publication of a sex-tape excerpt led to a $140 million privacy verdict in March 2016, secretly funded by Peter Thiel, bankrupting Gawker Media. Univision bought most of the network's other sites (Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin) for $135 million; the Gawker.com property itself was left for creditors.

BDG's Bryan Goldberg bought the dormant site in 2018 and relaunched it in July 2021 under editor Leah Finnegan, attempting to recapture the original's media criticism energy. The revival produced respected work but never reached commercial scale, and in February 2023 BDG shut it down again, citing the need to prioritize better-monetizing sites, a decision widely criticized in media circles.

The brand has remained dormant since, held as intellectual property within BDG's portfolio alongside other shelved titles.