officially turned on the lights? Finnegan has hinted at potential investigative pieces the staff have in the works.Ĭrucially, Goldberg seems at least more than happy to continue the waiting game he’s played since acquiring the Gawker I.P. Would it shock you, media-obsessive reader, to learn that it’s really only been about a month since Finnegan and co. Pleasant niceties and Prince Street pizza aside (the waitstaff began circulating whole pies once the hors d’oeuvres ran out, which felt at odds with the fact that the space was maybe at 40% capacity at its busiest), perhaps the ultimate source of good vibes for the night was the sense that New Gawker still had time to prove itself. “Gawker’s been such a psychological force in my life for so long,” she said in the bemused manner of someone waiting graciously to blow out their birthday candles. Asked if it’s a lot of pressure to be synonymous with the site, she told me that she simply found it funny. “I don’t want to jinx it, but we’re having a lot of fun,” Finnegan told me later, pointing to recent posts on The White Lotus and panda babies as some of her New Gawker favorites thus far. ( Vanity Fair’s very much included.) New senior Gawker editor George Civeris, who described the new team as “a comedy writers room, but better” waxed wistful over how he used to type g into his browser and get it autofilled to Gawker. Judging by the reverential tones at hand, you’d be forgiven for assuming some were discussing a centuries-old journalistic tradition, not a website that only stopped publishing five years ago-though the media class’s obsession never really ended. As we plucked at tiny cones of french fries, Adweek reporter Mark Stenberg mused over the evening’s historic potential, or at least the chance to be “part of a journalism myth or a legend,” which prompted Terry Nguyen, of Vox’s The Goods, to inform him that he was going to sound “too corny,” which was overall par for the course for the way most of the evening’s attendees seemed to be grappling with Gawker nostalgia. On the terrace, one-time Wing boss Audrey Gelman appeared to be in deep discussion with another Times media reporter, Michael Grynbaum. The crowd was a veritable Escher staircase of New York online media. They were both soon to be joined by former Gawker writer J.K. “It needs to fill up a little.” Near the entrance, he was chatting with New York Times media columnist Ben Smith, who published the findings of his Santa cosplay on New Gawker’s potential naughty-to-nice ratio earlier this week. “I’m a harsh critic of parties,” he told me as he shifted continuously on his feet. Looking around at the clusters of media types talking quietly amongst themselves, it seemed he’d be disappointed.Įven Bryan Goldberg, founder of Bustle Digital Group, former Gawker 1.0 punching bag, and the lucky masochist who then acquired Gawker at a 2018 bankruptcy auction, seemed antsy. My plus one for the evening-a former Gawker editor who refuses to be named because he has grown sick of giving any other quotes about Gawker-announced he was simply here for the booze and the spectacle, the latter so often a given for Old Gawker. Between the breezy terrace, the hanging baskets of something vine-y swaying in the puffy humidity, the circulation of mini cheeseburgers and Waldorf salad bites, the resulting effect resembled less of a gossip-flush media party than that of a work friend’s tasteful wedding reception. The vibe was-as strange as it is to evoke the kind of Midtown power lunches Old Gawker might have guzzled for breakfast- swanky: Whatever intimidating holdover halo effect ye olde Gawker mythology foretold quickly collapsed into a passive appreciation for the conventionally hotel chic choice of setting. A media launch party in Manhattan, in the fall of 2021, in this economy? In these epidemiological conditions? And yet Wednesday night at the Bowery Terrace, there gathered one extremely online cadre in honor of the long-awaited official relaunch of Gawker- The Third, now helmed by its former features editor and preeminent all-hands-meeting live-tweeter Leah Finnegan-wondering if perhaps it was all a sign that things were veering a little closer back to normal again, if that’s even still the goal.
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