Elizabeth Spiers | |
|---|---|
 Spiers in 2003 | |
| Born | December 11, 1976 Wetumpka, Alabama, U.S. |
| Education | Edgewood Academy |
| Alma mater | Duke University |
| Occupation(s) | Publisher and journalist |
| Known for | Founding editor of Gawker |
| Website | www |
Elizabeth Spiers (born December 11, 1976) is an American web publisher and journalist, the founding editor of Gawker , a media gossip blog.
From February 2011 until August 2012, she was the editor of The New York Observer . [1]
Spiers was born in Wetumpka, Alabama. She attended Edgewood Academy, which she later characterized as a segregation academy. [2]
Spiers has written that she was "raped in college by an ostensibly nice guy who was not a stranger to me." [3]
After graduating from Duke University in 1999 with a degree in public policy, Spiers headed to Wall Street to work in finance, but soon became involved in the fast-growing blog industry.
Spiers began in journalism as the founding editor of Gawker.com and later became a contributing writer and editor at New York magazine. She has written for The New York Times , Salon , Fortune , Fast Company and The New York Post, among other publications, and was an early blogger at GNXP. [4]
She worked briefly after that as the editor-in-chief of mediabistro.com, a site offering resources for media professionals. Since then, Spiers has founded several blog sites through her company, Dead Horse Media (as in the proverb "don't beat a dead horse"). The New York Times' DealBook wrote of her in 2006: "It is clear that an online empire is on Elizabeth Spiers's mind." [5] Dead Horse Media has produced Dealbreaker, a gossip website about Wall Street; AbovetheLaw , a blog about law; Fashionista , a gossip site about fashion; and Supermogul, a now defunct business management site. Spiers left Dead Horse Media abruptly on April 19, 2007, citing differences with her partners over launching new properties, according to BusinessWeek . [6]
Jared Kushner hired Spiers as the editor of The New York Observer in February 2011. [7] She resigned from the paper in August 2012. [1] Spiers was the editorial director of Flavorwire from 2012 to 2016. [8]
On September 12, 2025, an article by Spiers was published in The Nation in response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk two days before. [9] The article was subsequently condemned by Vice President J.D. Vance who claimed it misrepresented Kirk's statements and justified political violence. [10]