Gawker superfans raising money to buy site out of bankruptcy
A group of ex-Gawker staffers and fans just can’t stop gawking.
The superfans of the defunct gossip site have started a crowdsourcing campaign to raise $500,000 to try and buy Gawker.com out of bankruptcy.
On Monday, its first day, SaveGawker.com raised just $36,000 on Kickstarter — barely enough to buy a vowel.
They hope to reach their half-million-dollar goal in a month.
“As far as I know, nobody has put in a serious offer yet, so it could be a fairly low sale or it could be astronomical,” said James Del, a former Gawker vice president who is coordinating the revival.
Del, the publisher and chief revenue office of Futurism.com, says he intends to keep his current job even if the Gawker revival is successful.
Elizabeth Spiers, the launch editor of Gawker, is an adviser and board member to the group looking to revive it.
Gawker has not operated since August 2016, when it and other sites owned by Gawker Media — including Jezebel and Deadspin — were sold to Univision for $135 million as part of a bankruptcy court auction to settle a $140 million judgment against the company won by Terry Bollea, better known as WWE star Hulk Hogan.
Bollea sued Nick Denton’s Gawker Media for invasion of privacy after Gawker.com published a video of, and story about, the former wrestler having sex with the wife of his ex-best friend.
Univision did not want to keep the toxic Gawker asset — so it sat as an asset in the bankrupt Gawker Media estate.
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Page Six first reported on Nov. 2 that a group of Gawker superfans were planning to band together to try to revive the site.
Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, an archnemesis, financially backed Bollea’s suit.
Thiel was angry at Gawker for outing him as being gay. He would like to buy Gawker, according to his lawyer, who called Thiel “the most able and logical purchaser.”
Gawker’s administrator does not want to allow Thiel to bid, terming him a “malicious buyer.”
Del said his plan is to have the Gawker Foundation operate the site as a not-for-profit entity.
Kickstarter donors would be considered members of the foundation, Del said.
Up for grabs are the Gawker name, its archives and potential claims against Thiel.
The sale could come as soon as January.