Gawker Media Folds Defamer Into Flagship Gossip Site

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2009 - 12:01pm.

Los Angeles - Blog network Gawker Media announced yesterday that it will fold its four-year-old Hollywood gossip site Defamer into its flagship Gawker.com property, after failing to attract an acceptable deal when it put Defamer up for sale several months back.

"In December, Gawker Media sold Consumerist to the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. At the same time we announced we'd had a bid for Defamer and were exploring a sale of the site. Ultimately, the brand was worth more to us -- as a section of the Gawker site," Gawker Media head Nick Denton wrote in a blog post.

"Fortunately, the three Defamer writers have decent employment prospects even amid the great media die-off -- a testament to their talents."

Denton added that Gawker.com now draws more than 3 million monthly visitors, more than three-quarters of whom reside outside of New York -- reflecting "Gawker's evolution into a national gossip site."

http://snipurl.com/chvv6 (Gawker)