:: LNR Journalism ::

Gawker's worthless 'The Bain Files': 'Confidential' doesn't equal 'important'

CNN :: Gawker today published what it's calling The Bain Files, hundreds of pages of audited financials and private placement memoranda for old Bain Capital funds. Let me save you some time: There is nothing in there that will inform your opinion of Mitt Romney.

How do I know? - A report by Dan Primack, finance.fortune.cnn.com

"... folks looking for a bombshell are going to be disappointed" writes Joe Weisenthal, www.businessinsider.com

'How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance': Gawker's weekend experiment

Poynter :: Before last weekend many people had never heard of Kiese Laymon — until his essay, “How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance,” appeared on Gawker’s home page and went viral in a matter of hours. One hundred-thousand unique page views, 3,000 Facebook “likes,” and as many tweets later, Gawker may have just repositioned itself as more than a juicy gossip site.

"Gawker essay experiment brings weekend audience, attention to new writers" - A report by Tracie Powell, www.poynter.org

HT: Jay Rosen, here:

Gawker is always changing: bit.ly/NgOurx This is why it has to be watched if you have a stake in the future of journalism.

— Jay Rosen(@jayrosen_nyu) August 4, 2012

Gawker essay experiment brings weekend audience, attention to new writers

Poynter :: Before last weekend many people had never heard of Kiese Laymon — until his essay, “How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance,” appeared on Gawker’s home page and went viral in a matter of hours. One hundred-thousand unique page views, 3,000 Facebook “likes,” and as many tweets later, Gawker may have just repositioned itself as more than a juicy gossip site.

A report by Tracie Powell, www.poynter.org

Gawker's new comment system 'Kinja'

Columbia Journalism Review :: Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton recently introduced a new commenting system, called Kinja, on his network of websites. Rather than showing all comments on a given article, Kinja shows only the most interesting thread of comments and replies. Denton hopes this will finally make reporters and sources pay attention to the comments instead of dismissing them; to help ensure that, he’s ordered his staff writers to reply to interesting comments on their articles.

[Peter Sterne:] Will it help or hurt the site’s young writers?

A review - Continue to read Peter Sterne, www.cjr.org

HT: Jim Romenesko

'Schadenfreude'? Hamilton Nolan: Jonah Lehrer just does not know how to do journalism

Gawker :: Yesterday we found out that Jonah Lehrer, the Gladwellesque whiz kid who's The New Yorker's newest staff writer, reused his own old writings for every goddamn blog post he's written for The New Yorker so far. A self-plagiarist, he is. Big time. What's the latest? He is an even bigger time plagiarist (self, and otherwise!) than we knew yesterday. And for it, he should probably be eased out of journalism's highest echelon.

Continue to read Hamilton Nolan, gawker.com

Jim Romenesko, here with part of a conversation

@romenesko some think ppl are engaging in schadenfreude with @jonahlehrer. I disagree. I saw no “glee” in major articles. You? Cc @sarahcuda

— Robert Stephens (@rstephens) Juni 20, 2012

Has Jonah Lehrer engaged in real plagiarism? Mathew Ingram thinks so.

if you're wondering whether Jonah Lehrer has also engaged in real plagiarism, check the note on this New Yorker piece: newyorker.com/reporting/2012…

— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) Juni 20, 2012

Gawker's Neetzan Zimmerman: How long can traffic boosting content pay the bill?

It might work today. What about tomorrow?

Niemanlab :: Gawker's Neetzan Zimmerman, this machine-like person has generated more than 300 bylines for his employer since he started on April 9. These are not lengthy tomes, usually; nearly every post is just a funny photo or video, with body text barely longer than a caption. The average word count of a sampling of his recent stories is about 200. He has generated huge traffic numbers for Gawker — paying the pageview bills so other writers can focus on less viral work.

[Andrew Phelps:] (The essential question is:) Can Chinese goats subsidize substance? Can farting babies pay the bills, so journalists can focus on real work?

Continue to read Andrew Phelps, www.niemanlab.org

Nick Denton says Gawker will remain independent

JimRomenesko.com :: “We’ve been doing this nearly ten years,” Gawker chief Nick Denton tells his staff. “I’m not nearly ready to retire yet — or cash in. But we need to recognize there’s a new generation of management at Gawker Media.” Denton writes in his memo: “The days of the banner advertisement are numbered. In two years, our primary offering to marketers will be our discussion platform.”

Gawker made $70,000 from Amazon in December "without really trying. No seriously, it was an accident.” bit.ly/IMter9

— Romenesko (@romenesko) May 11, 2012

Continue to read Jim Romenesko, jimromenesko.com

The Verge aims to take on TechCrunch and All Things D

Business Insider :: When Vox Media's The Verge launched last year, it looked like it would be another rival to gadget sites like Gawker's Gizmodo and AOL's Engadget. It turns out editor-in-chief Josh Topolsky and publisher Marty Moe (both AOL veterans) have much bigger ambitions: "to become the destination for all things technology."

oooh, we're quaking over here at ATD! The Verge Just Hired A Boatload Of Writers To Take On TechCrunch And All Things D businessinsider.com/the-verge-just…

— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) May 2, 2012

Continue to read Nicholas Carlson, www.businessinsider.com

Gawker: We want to elevate the discourse about frogs who sit like humans

Niemanlab :: Most news organizations would kill for Gawker’s commenters, but Nick Denton is messing with them again. Denton describes the failure of comments like an economist. It’s a tragedy of the commons, he told Anil Dash at SXSW, or rather, “a tragedy of the comments.”

Gawker Media’s smallest site attracts more than 2 million unique visitors a month. It’s a problem of scale. You can switch to Facebook Comments or outsource moderation or encourage journalists to jump into the threads, but at the end of the day Gawker (and plenty of larger newspapers) just can’t scale.

Gawker's new commenting system - Continue to read Andrew Phelps, www.niemanlab.org

Nick Denton, Gawker, on Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed: Cared more about volume less quality

Ouch! That hurts or: it is simply to boost discussion on Nick Denton's commenting system. Some "friendly" words to get more media coverage. Who knows?

Gawker:: (Nick Denton, in the comment section:) Jonah Peretti is one of the smartest web publishers out there. And Buzzfeed is an aggressive and dynamic company. But we're obviously pursuing a different path. Look at our recent hires, people like John Koblin and Rich Juzwiak. Look at the people who have left Gawker for Buzzfeed, like Cherette and Whitney. And this discussion system is not something that Buzzfeed would build. Jonah -- whether at Huffington Post or Buzzfeed -- has always cared more about the volume of discussion and social sharing than its quality.

[Nick Denton:] (Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed) sees comments as a way for readers to *think* they're contributing. It's cynical.

HT: Jay Yarow, Business Insider

Continue to read Nick Denton, gawker.com