Founder Nick Denton has been talking about Gawker Mediaa4a4s move away from the standard blog format for a while now. Today he published a long post explaining the thinking behind the changes. You might even call the post a manifesto, if it wasna4a4t so clinical.
The basic idea behind the redesign &8212' a layout with big images highlighting the daya4a4s most important stories, while the old-fashioned, reverse-chronological news stream runs along the side &8212' is no surprise. In fact, it has been viewable on a test website for months. And ita4a4s pretty obvious that this gives Gawkera4a4s blogs (including Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and of course Gawker itself) a way to highlight their hottest stories, rather than whatever is newest.
To explain the change, Denton offered an example from Gizmodoa4a4s biggest story, when it ran photos of the then-secret iPhone 4 (which Gizmodo purchased from someone who found the phone in a bar):
In order to keep video of the iPhone prototype at the top of the reverse chronological flow, Gizmodo actually stopped publishing for several hours. How ridiculous! In any sane medium, a story as powerful as that, one which was drawing more than 90% of the site&'s traffic, would be given commensurate real estate' and it wouldn&'t require a hack to keep the item prominent. Hence the splash story' now we can finally create front pages that match the visual impact of a tabloid wood or magazine cover' and we can leave them up as long as they&'re generating interest.
(Wea4a4ve never had a story quite as insanely popular as the iPhone 4 post, but we struggle with similar issues at VentureBeat around our own scoops, which is why we&'ve added our own box of highlighted stories.)
Denton is big on the importance of scoops, but at the same time he acknowledges the necessity of running smaller stories that comment on or just point to coverage elsewhere. Those stories will be de-emphasized in the new layout, and Denton hints that he might restructure Gawkera4a4s editorial staff to reflect the division between different kinds of bloggers: a4Athe curator or editor' and the producer or scoopmonger.a4
Beyond the magazine-style layout, Denton said Gawkera4a4s sites will emulate TV and offer more regularly scheduled programming. For example, he said Lifehacker could designate a specific time on a specific day as its personal finance slot, and readers can reliably return to the site at that time to find new articles on that topic. That also creates more opportunities for advertisers &8212' who might want to be the &''exclusive&'' sponsor of a certain channel or type of programming, while also avoiding the more salacious Gawker content that they might not want to be associated with.
Denton&'s post prompted caustic responses from his former employees. Former Gawker writer Alex Pareene pointed out that Dentona4a4s blog post is exactly the kind of story that Denton would discourage from his writers: a4Along, wordy, and of interest only to a niche audience.a4 And former Gawker editor Choire Sicha (who co-founded his own site, The Awl) dismissed Dentona4a4s strategy as a4Apanic writers &' have no ad sales dept.a4
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Companies: Gawker Media
People: Nick Denton
Companies: Gawker Media
People: Nick Denton
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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