Gawker was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers that was based in New York City and focused on celebrities and the media industry.

Gawker had come under scrutiny for posting videos, communications and other content that violated copyrights or the privacy of its owners, or was illegally obtained.

Chris Mohney, formerly of Gridskipper, Gawker Media's travel blog, was hired for the newly created position of managing editor.

Associate editor Maggie Shnayerson also began writing for the site; she replaced Doree Shafrir, who left in September 2007 for the New York Observer.

On September 21, 2007, Gawker announced Balk's departure to edit Radar Magazine's website; he was replaced by Alex Pareene of Wonkette.

He made that clear in several comments on the site at the time, also denouncing what he said was its practice of hiring full-time employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying taxes and employment benefits.

[19] On November 12, 2008, the company announced selling the popular blog site Consumerist and the folding of Valleywag, with managing editor Owen Thomas being demoted to a columnist on Gawker, and the rest of the staff being laid off.

Some members and staff writers complained that owner Nick Denton was looking to sell out all of the Gawker sites while they were still profitable.

[24][25] In 2012, the website changed its focus away from editorial content and toward what its new editor-in-chief A. J. Daulerio called "traffic whoring" and "SEO bomb throws".

[26][27] In January 2013 Daulerio reportedly asked for more responsibility over other Gawker Media properties, but after a short time was pushed out by publisher Denton.

[9] On January 16, 2019, it was announced Carson Griffith, Ben Barna, Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw were joining the staff of the new Gawker.

"[50] Kate Storey of Esquire outlined the leading theory on the failed relaunch was that it aimed to turn Gawker into "the prestigious, journalistic gem of BDG, kept afloat by the profits of other sites like Bustle and Elite Daily", however, "the BDG board and Goldberg soon lost interest in a site that was proving difficult to staff, a lightning rod for controversy, and, ultimately, expensive to operate (reporting is expensive) while not generating commensurate revenue".

[57] In November 2023, the Gawker brand and domain were purchased by Meng Ru Kuok, the founder of Singapore-based venture capital firm Caldecott Music Group.

Gawker's content consisted of celebrity and media industry gossip, critiques of mainstream news outlets, and New York-centric stories.

[59] Denton announced in a staff memo in November 2015 that the site was switching from covering New York and the media world to focus primarily on politics.

[63] Maria Bustillos, for the Columbia Journalism Review in 2018, highlighted "what would be missing if the Gawker archive were to disappear" which includes the "roots" of public accusations on the misconduct of Louis C.K., Bill Cosby, and Harvey Weinstein.

[7][8][64] Parker Higgins, the Freedom of the Press Foundation's director of special projects, said they wanted to "reduce the 'upside' for wealthy individuals and organizations who would eliminate embarrassing or unflattering coverage by purchasing outlets outright.

[...] Mr. Higgins said the threat of an owner who would remove or change articles could have a chilling effect on the press, either by directly shutting publications or by encouraging self-censorship.

[70] Hogan filed a lawsuit against Gawker and Denton for violating his privacy, asking for $100 million in damages; the trial was slated for July 2015.

[79] On July 16, 2015, Gawker reporter Jordan Sargent posted a story about a gay porn star's alleged text correspondence with a married executive from a competing media company, Condé Nast.

The article claimed Condé Nast CFO David Geithner had planned to go to Chicago to meet a male escort, and pay him $2,500 for sex.

According to The Daily Beast, "a source familiar with the situation said Gawker ultimately paid the subject of the offending article a tidy undisclosed sum in order to avoid another lawsuit."

[5] Univision continued to operate Gawker Media's six other websites - Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku and Lifehacker.

Kimmel accused the site of potentially assisting real stalkers, adding that Gould and her website could ultimately be responsible for someone's death.

[95] On September 17, 2008, in reporting that pranksters associated with 4chan had hacked the personal e-mail account of Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Gawker published screenshots of the emails, photos, and address list obtained by the hackers.

[96][97] While accessing personal e-mail accounts without authorization constitutes a federal crime, current DOJ interpretation of this statute following the decision in Theofel v. Farey-Jones is that perpetrators may be prosecuted only for reading "unopened" emails.

[103] In February 2011, Gawker posted an email exchange between United States Congressman Chris Lee and a woman he had met through a personal ad on Craigslist.

[110] The following day, a database dump of user credentials, chat logs, and source code of the Gawker website was made available on The Pirate Bay, among other BitTorrent trackers.

[115] Multiple commentators from Wired, CNET and The Next Web questioned the morality behind Brutsch's doxing, and began a debate over whether the exposé encouraged online vigilantism.

[118] In March 2016, the case was dismissed after US District Judge Alison Nathan concluded that the claims were outside the statute of limitations and failed under the 2nd Circuit's "primary beneficiary" test.