Gawker Media

Agenda
Timeline
Titles
Stats
Uniques
Pageviews
Commenter Traffic
Audience Demographics
Blogging Industry
Gawker Media
Nick Denton
Gawker’s Business Model
Key Revenue (Advertising) and Expenses (Compensation)
A Questionable Future

02 03 04 05 06 07 08 Launched Sold Less than $50K revenue Gawker Content Media Productions created to serve Nike 3 Managing Editors quit, at gawker.com, Nick Denton steps in Readers post 485,393 comments across 15 sites in February Gawker Media Timeline Comments enabled

Quick Look: Gawker Geek vs. Gawker Chic • GAWKER GEEK: Focus on technology and consumption • GAWKER CHIC: Lifestyle and Entertainment coverage told in narrative style 12 Titles 200 Contributors 20 MM Uniques (Quantcast) SIZE Educated Age adjusted affluent Influential Core: Adults 18-34 AUDIENCE

350 stories per week

Nielsen’s Gawker.com Unique Visitors

Recent Unique Visitors

2007 Monthly Unique Visitors

Historical Pageviews

Recent Pageviews

Historical Commenter Traffic

Recent Commenter Traffic

Age Demographics

Gender Demographics

Education Demographics

Income Demographics

Geography

Blogging History
1994: Justin Hall creates first blog, Links.net
1997: Jorn Barger coins term Weblog
1999: Blogger launches first free blog-creation service
2000: Boing Boing launches
2002: Gakwer Media launches
2003: Google launches AdSense, matching ads to blog content
2004: 32 million Americans read blogs
2005: Huffington Post launches
$100 million worth of blog ads sold online
2006 Matt Drudge listed as one of Times 100 Most Influential People
2008: 115 million active blogs

The Long Tail of Blogging

3 Blog Business Models
Lone Writer
Example: Talking Points Memo
Known for breaking news of Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott’s racially charged comments. Audience surged to 40,000 daily. Grosses in the low six figures. 3 full time staffers. Daily traffic is 150,000 page views, charges advertisers $5 CPM
Record Label
Example: Weblogs, Inc.
Known for high quantity (90 blogs created), low quality. Sold to AOL for $25 million in 2006
Boutique
Example: Gawker Media
Known for crafting blogs carefully aimed at a deluxe niche readership.

Nick Denton
“ Blogs are likely to be better for readers than for capitalists.” (2006, NYMag)
“ I always thought that you needed to know the code for finding out what was actually going on when you read mainstream publications. We just say it. It is supposed to be the conversation that occurs between reporters at the bar after they have finished their stories.” (2006, NYT)
“ On the rare occasions I ponder my legacy, I think I should set up gossip sites to cover countries like Russia and China. To foment revolution, with a drip-drip of snarky stories about corruption.” (2008, Wired)
Earned degree in economics and politics from Oxford University Sold 2 tech companies for $50MM in 1999 “ He’s polite, quiet, and relentlessly confident, an effective poised leader whose true nature is amoral recklessness, an unrufflable libertarian and libertine.” (2006, NYMag)

Gawker Media Business Model
Expenses:
Compensation: $7 million
139 employees (40 FT editors + 40 FT tech and admin + 59 freelance)
80 full time x $70,000/year each + $400,000 in traffic based bonuses + 59 freelancers x $17,000/year each
Overhead: $500,000
$10,000 webhosting x 12 titles + $120,000 rent + $260,000 advertising
Revenue
30 million page views x 4 units x $30/page ratecard x 60% sold x 15% discount x 10% bulk discount x 15% commission = $20 million
Profit
~$10-$12 million into Nick Denton’s pocket

Standard Media Offerings Skyscraper: 160x600 Expands: Right To 500x600 Splashbox: 300x250 Expands: Down/Left To 500x500 Interrupter: 728x90 Expands: Up/Down To 728x500

Advertising Rates
$10 per 1,000 pageviews
Discount rates up to 70% for buys of $100K+
Also offers Custom Skins, Content Generation, Contests, Polls, Branding Studies

Staff
“ You need a talented writer entertaining enough to hold an audience, a consistent publishing schedule, content worth linking to by other bloggers and worthy of press coverage, marketing savvy to sell advertising, and plenty of traffic.” –Wired Magazine, 2005
Work from home or the “office”
Constant contact through instant messenger
Required to join Facebook group
Under contract to post 12 times a day for $3,000/month or $6.50-$9.75 per 1,000 pageviews from fixed pot of “editorial bonuses”
Primarily in their 20 and 30s already affiliated with the arts&culture world
Gawker.com:
3 Editors
4 Reporters
15 Freelancers
100 Commenters

Product “ They didn’t exactly invent the blog, but the tone they used for Gawker became the most important stylistic influence on the emerging field of blogging and has turned into the de facto voice of blogs today.” –New York Magazine, 2007 “ Right now, we don’t have enough inventory for people who are trying to reach young males. The idea was to come up with sites that would interest them.” –Nick Denton, 2004 “ It's no longer enough to take stories from the New York Times, and add a dash of snark. Gawker needs to break and develop more stories . And the new managing editor will need to hire and manage reporters, as well as bloggers. Think of Gawker less as a blog than as a full-blown news site. A feel for the tone of the internet, and the particular obsessions of the internet audience, is necessary. But print reporters and editors, with traditional newsgathering skills, should not rule themselves out. Newspapers provide no long-term job security; this is the chance to make the leap over into online journalism.” –Gawker.com website, 2007

Recent Job Description
Blogs such as Gawker won't be running 5,000-word-long features any time soon, nor giving writers weeks to investigate. But the web—other blogs, search engines and social network sites—increasingly rewards original items. So we're looking for an additional reporter for the team.
At its most basic, the reporting may at times be little more than value-added blogging: a story in the news, put in context with a quick Nexis search, and deconstructed . At its most elevated, the new Gawker hire may experiment with a new form of reporting, unique to online, in which ideas are floated, appeals made to the readers, and the story assembled over the course of several items, from speculation, and tips from users. Here's the kind of person suited to the position.
At least two years of experience as a reporter at a daily or weekly newspaper, covering either crime news, business, or media and culture (yes, a print background is an advantage ).
Ability to write five short items a day , some one-offs, some to further an ongoing campaign or investigation.
A reporter who appreciates the discipline of newspaper traditions, but chafes under them.
A natural gossip who loves the story and, even more, the story behind the story.
familiarity with blogging software , RSS readers and graphics editing tools a big plus.
You may have heard that blogs don't pay; that's no longer the case. Short letter explaining why you're suited, with links to articles online, by December 19, to Noah Robischon with the subject line: Reporter.

Competition
“ Blogging is increasingly becoming a survival of the fittest—and that all boils down to who has the best content. The blogs that are going to stand out are the ones who break news and have credibility.”
– Elizabeth Spiers, first gawker.com writer (2007)
Technorati lists the top 10 blogs as
Huffington Post
Tech Crunch
Engadget (Weblogs, Inc)
Gizmodo
Boing Boing (5 former Wired editors)
Lifehacker
Ars Technica
Mashable
Icanhascheezburger
Daily Kos

The Future
Challenges
Recession could decrease online advertising spending
Shortage of talented programmers could slow speed of development
Tech bubble 2.0 could/will bust
Opportunities
Blogging becomes professionalized as an industry
More news content could begin online, thereby increasing ad revenue
Linking/search software changes to preference blogs
Value of media design/content generation/audience metrics increases
Other
Nick Denton could get bored and sell all of Gawker Media

Questions?

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Gawker Media

by Devon Smith on Jan 17, 2010

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Gawker Media — Presentation Transcript