Gawker website shutting down after 14 years

LOS ANGELES — Embattled New York media and gossip blog Gawker.com is shutting down operations next week. The news comes just two days after Univision won an auction to buy Gawker’s assets for $135 million, and follows a long battle with wrestler Hulk Hogan and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.

Gawker announced ceasing operations on its site Thursday: “Nick Denton, the company’s outgoing CEO, informed current staffers of the site’s fate on Thursday afternoon, just hours before a bankruptcy court in Manhattan will decide whether to approve Univision’s bid for Gawker Media’s other assets. The near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized.”

Hogan had won a $140 million judgement against Gawker Media, its founder Nick Denton and one of its editors in March. The verdict was the result of a lawsuit over Gawker’s publication of a sex tape featuring Hogan, but was funded by controversial Silicon Valley businessman Peter Thiel in retaliation to Gawker outing him as gay years earlier.

Gawker Media had declared bankruptcy in June, and at the time was looking to sell to ZDNet for $90 million. In the end, Univision prevailed in an auction of Gawker’s assets. These also include gadget blog Gizmodo, women’s website Jezebel, video game blog Kotaku and others, in addition to Gawker.com.

Reports indicated earlier this week that Univision wants to extend employment offers to 95 percent of Gawker’s staffers, it’s unclear whether this will include writers for Gawker.com.

Gawker was founded 14 years ago, and grew to become one of the internet’s most popular media and gossip sites. Gawker.com attracted some 18 million monthly U.S. visitors every month. The site was controversial in part due to its aggressive reporting on celebrities, which at one point included the “Gawker stalker” — a crowd-sourced celebrity sighting effort that turned the site’s readers into paparazzi.

However, Gawker’s coverage also included some major scoops, including its reporting on Rob Ford’s crack cocaine use, Hillary Clinton’s private email servers and its scoop on the iPhone 4, which Gawker site Gizmodo acquired from a source two months before Apple was ready to unveil the device.