Gawker will become a politics site - and that means layoffs
This is a big shift for a site that has been known for covering New York, media, and culture more broadly - though politics has always been a portion.
In an internal memo leaked to The Awl, Gawker Media's executive editor John Cook writes, "Gawker will focus intensely on politics, broadly considered, and the 2016 campaign."
The site "will take a Daily Show approach to covering the ever-intensifying culture wars, documenting, satirizing, and reporting on the ways that political disputes are refracted in every aspect of our popular culture."
This change comes after a summer of personnel shakeups at Gawker, which began when a controversial post outing a media executive was scrubbed from the site. The internal turmoil that followed saw the departure of a string of editors and writers.
But beyond Gawker's shift toward politics, there will be other changes to Gawker Media more generally. Here is what we know so far, according to the New York Times and the leaked memo:
- About 10 people will lose their jobs, but an equal number will be created.
- Gawker is abandoning plans to license its content management system, Kinja.
- Gawker Media, as a whole, will now "focus on its seven core sites." To that end, Cook writes the company is making the following changes: "Today we are folding Gawker's The Vane, Jezebel's Millihelen and Kitchenette, Lifehacker's Workshop and AfterHours, Jalopnik's Flight Club, and Gizmodo's Indefinitely Wild and Throb. Pursuant to Gawker's new focus, Defamer, Morning After, and Valleywag will be permanently shuttered."
Here is the full leaked memo from Cook, obtained by The Awl.