Gawker, the gossip who was forced to file for bankruptcy following the release of a sex video of a celebrity, will be relaunched with a new owner, the publisher announced Wednesday.
Bustle Digital Group said it hired former Gawker writers and editors to revive the site, which went bankrupt after it was ordered to pay $140 million to former gunman Hulk Hogan for posting a sex video.
The Gawker case divided the media and press freedom advocates after it revealed that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel had funded the Hogan case as part of an effort to oust Gawker from the business.
The case ended in 2016 with a settlement requiring that $31 million be paid to Hogan plus a portion of Gawker Media’s bankrupt assets.
Gawker Media’s brands were sold to Univision’s media organization and Gawker’s online page was acquired in 2018 through Bustle owner Bryan Goldberg in a bankruptcy auction.
Leah Finnegan, Gawker’s new editor-in-chief who had worked on the publication from 2014 to 2015, said she would settle for the challenge of a revival after some initial hesitation.
“Who, in God’s call, would need to edit an online page created through an evil lord of technology and dirty through a failed relaunch?”said in a blog post.
TV personality Terry Bollea, also known as Hulk Hogan, noted in a 2012 photo, sued Gawker Media over a sex video, and ultimately forced the band into bankruptcy Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GERARDO MORA
“The so-called toxic Gawker, but also strangely revered; an insoluble combination . . . I can imagine it. I can imagine how much I missed laughing at things on the Internet. I laughed a lot when I used to paint in Gawker, and I laughed reading Gawker a lot,” he wrote.
“Sometimes I would read old messages from Gawker just to see if he still had the ability to laugh. . . There were no smart places to read. The world lost in the darkness and light it desperately needed. “
Gawker has been criticized for his unfettered technique for celebrity coverage, however, the court in the case’s index has raised whether hard interests can use their resources to silence the media on the occasion of unfavorable coverage.
Thiel, a major Silicon Valley investor and Supporter of Donald Trump, has admitted as an investment a legal war opposed to the gossip that “unmasked” him as gay.
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