Gawker's Nick Denton: See, You Ingrates? This Is What We're Trying to Do (Video)

February 10, 2011 at 8:44 pm PT

Gawker Media’s Nick Denton has spent much of the week responding to whiny readers and armchair Web designers who don’t like his sites’ new look.

If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the publishing impresario was feeling just a titch…defensive.

But Thursday night, Denton hosted a gathering of 100-plus chitty-chatty newsish media types at his SoHo loft, and there he seemed quite confident again. Midway through his cocktail party, he dimmed the lights, clambered up on a windowsill and toasted his sales team, his technical team and his writers. As well as former New York congressman Chris Lee.

And then he played us this movie, which shows quite clearly what he’s trying to do with his properties. He wants to morph them from “blogs” into something more ambitious, but also older: He wants them to be like TV.

A Day in the Life of Gawker Media – FINAL from source/record on Vimeo.

Tagged with: advertising, blogs, Chris Lee, Christopher Lee, congressman, Craigslist, designers, digital, entertainment, gathering, Gawker Media, host, Internet, MediaMemo, movie, new look, Nick Denton, Peter Kafka, properties, readers, sales, sites, SoHo, television, TV, Twitter, video, Web, writers

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Anonymous

I already quit reading Gawker, the quality has been going down with stories about nothing, like a kid falling down etc. The redesign is a cheap ploy for pageviews like when Business Insider uses slideshows etc. For a while you could click “classic view” and it has a more traditional layout, now they even took that away.

This douche is no Steve Jobs, he should listen to his audience, not dictate to them what they should want.
Anonymous

When are members of the press going to actually do their collective jobs and get to the root of all of complaints from from the Gawker Media commenters?

Sadly, you, too, Mr. Kafka, have glossed over this vital point. In fact, you’ve ignored it completely! What we “ingrates” are simply trying to convey to muckraking-media-mogul Nick Denton is this: Go ahead with your grand scheme of seamless multi-media integration, but do not throw away the proverbial baby with the bathwater by systematically altering what was the best commenting platform on the internet…this includes all of the forums where like-minded people could share, vent, rant, etc. Most feedback honest, first-time visitors will give you about Gawker’s websites is simple: they love reading comments just as much as they love reading the fresh, breezy, up-to-date articles from Gawker’s staff.Also, ask staff members, say, from Gizmodo about the rapport they enjoy with starred commenters. Gizmodo, in particular, has a solid community of commenters…it’s like a family. We commenters just want back what we had.

It is my personal conviction that goofy-ass Denton really has a vision. Obviously he is an innovator. He is concerned with valuation, but he ultimately wants to realize a dream. In his fury and haste to realize his vision, Denton has simply disregarded a large section of his base by retooling the comment sections. This was totally unnecessary. Let Gawker and Denton play their little “TV” videos (wow, so retro; yet, so genius!), but give the geeks their fort back. The two can certainly co-exist.

The next time you see Denton at, say, one of his swanky, SoHo soirees, feel free to mention commenter’s petitions to him..during the workday.he’s too busy changing the internet as we know it, while tweeting repetitious, inane responses to his dwindling readership.
Anonymous

It isn’t just armchair Web designers who don’t like it, it’s some of the very best Web professionals in the world who disapprove. And not just of the look … the architecture is even worse, and has already failed in many outrageous ways. It’s the Hindenburg, it’s flying hydrogen.
Anonymous

If I didn’t already think that Nick Denton was delusional and ignorant – I do now.

And Kafka – whiny and ingrates? I suspect this is in jest – but it is quite possible you are serious, maybe both. Either way, I am offended.
Anonymous

Peter Kafka is an idiot. Nick Denton is an egomaniac douche.

I have an idea, let’s transform one of the most successful internet properties that people love into something lame and unoriginal. Brilliant!
http://infotainmentempire.blogspot.com Rob

I’m confused after seeing the video. So fucking what? We had videos and shit posted already.

Also, if you want to be more like “TV,” you kinda have to come up with your own content. You know, not re-post shit from YouTube. Gotta have your own channel, your own cameras and your own crew to film your own stuff and do your OWN interviews rather than re-posting.

If you want to be like TV, get the equipment first, then do the site redesign WHEN YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER.

Call your readers ingrates and we’ll see if they keep coming to you.
http://infotainmentempire.blogspot.com Rob

Nicely put. In my comment above I mentioned if they want to make it more like “TV” they need to have original material to play on their “TV” programming since, let’s face it, everything else is re-posted from Vimeo, YouTube, or somewhere else. Even when Chen did the iPhone 4 video, the production quality was shit. It looked like it was done with no extra lighting, no make up, no boom mics, all recorded on a cell phone camera (it looked like it at least, maybe they crapped down the quality for bandwidth reasons).

If they want to be professional and a larger media company, they need to get to work on that shit. And that iPhone 4 video was probably THE BIGGEST THING Gizmodo has reported on EVER.
Anonymous

People off Gawker comments are deflecting to their own site – crasstalk.com. I’ve heard the Gizmodo commenters have created something of their own. It will be interesting to see if the commenters come back. They certainly haven’t so far. Of course, it’s only been a week….
Anonymous

Thanks, Dude.

I agree with your observations on “TV Gawker”. Who knows, maybe they will roll out original content? It’s anyone’s guess. Denton wanted to showcase his staff’s original posts and also feature news. He fully admits to “the news” taking priority over commenters and forums.
That’s fine. Whatever flats his boat. You can keep forums and the starred commenting system in place, WHILE you broadcast “TV Gawker” in its many manifestations (iPhone 4 video, Vimeo reposts et al).

Other observations:

1. Here is the ONE thing above all else I would love to get through that thick head of Mr. Nick Denton:
If it ain’t broke, Brother, don’t fix it! The tiered, starred commenting system which was created by Gawker Media was clearly a huge win. People loved it. It held people to a different standard. The commenters fed off of the posts of the writers and vice versa. THAT drove original content. THAT gave voice to thousands of great ideas. The geeks and nerds of the world flocked to the system and used their brains to post brilliant content. Why the hell would you want t alter something that worked on all levels in favor of this Twitter-like bullshit commenting system that is being proposed? It makes no sense. FREE comments by readers drove the websites. Every single person I know that reads Gawker’s family of sites admits they read the comments as much as the content from staff. Most others have reported similar experiences to mine. What the hell, Denton?

2. I’ll play conspiracy theorist on this one by submitting
http://infotainmentempire.blogspot.com Rob

Totally agreed. Are you under the same name on their sites? I’m under pekosrob, and yes, I totally think comments help the site. Everyone I know says, “did you read the comment blah blah blah” when I send them a link to a page.

Sure, some of the comments had been lacking lately, I felt that the influx of new members since the iPhone 4 video came out brought poorer quality to the table. I see starred commenters making REALLY STUPID comments, and yet here I am, almost 3 years later, still starless. I got over that awhile back though, now I’m like, “let’s see who can see my brilliantly grayed out comment.”

Plus, the comments allow for the company to see what they’re doing great and what they’re doing bad in real time.

Maybe they just want to be a legitimate journalist site (I say this because of the whole Apple SS breaking down Chen’s door, citing a difference between bloggers and “real” journalists, etc.). Whatever it is, there’s no reason they couldn’t have kept the same comment system and revamped the layout of the site.

And if you’re going to change the comment system, make it BETTER. I wasn’t too up in arms about DISQUS doing the comments for BGR and Engadget. Now, I kind actually like it, since I can use it to comment on other sites like here.
http://dbcooper.livejournal.com Mike Boomshadow

Mr. Kafka, I have to disagree with your assessment. Change is good, but not when it actually breaks features that bring eyes to the site–and the new commenting system is DEFINITELY broken–then it’s not good change.
Anonymous

I used to read several of Denton’s blogs almost daily, mainly Gawker. Now the redesign won’t load with standard Firefox filtering plug-ins, even if I accept his site.

I won’t be reading them any more I guess–see ya!

Gawker's Nick Denton: See, You Ingrates? This Is What We're Trying to Do (Video)

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