Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Predecessor | Gawker Media |
Founded | September 22, 2016 |
Defunct | April 8, 2019 |
Fate | Acquired by Great Hill Partners, folded into G/O Media |
Headquarters | New York City, U.S. |
Parent | Fusion Media Group |
Subsidiaries | Deadspin Lifehacker Gizmodo Kotaku io9 Jalopnik Splinter The Root Jezebel Earther The Takeout |
Gizmodo Media Group was an online media company and blog network formerly operated by Univision Communications (now TelevisaUnivision) in its Fusion Media Group division. The company was created from assets acquired from Gawker Media during its bankruptcy in 2016. [1] In April 2019, Gizmodo and The Onion were sold to private equity firm Great Hill Partners, which combined them into a new company named G/O Media. [2]
On June 10, 2016, Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the company was ordered to pay $115 million in compensatory damages and a further $25 million in punitive damages in Bollea v. Gawker . [3]
On August 16, 2016, Univision Communications purchased Gawker for $135 million. [1] The purchase did not include the flagship website Gawker. [1] It included the websites Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Lifehacker. [4] Univision named the unit Gizmodo Media Group after one of its blogs, Gizmodo , in an effort to distance itself from the Gawker name. [5]
On September 10, 2016, Univision removed six controversial posts from various Gawker Media sites, each with the note: "This story is no longer available as it is the subject of pending litigation against the prior owners of this site." [6]
On September 21, 2016, Raju Narisetti was named as CEO of Gizmodo Media Group. [7] [8]
On July 7, 2017, Gizmodo Media Group acquired the blog Very Smart Brothas. [9]
In September 2017, Gizmodo Media Group launched its first new stand-alone site since acquisition from Gawker Media, Earther, devoted to environmental news, with Managing Editor Maddie Stone. [10]
In December 2017, Gizmodo Media Group announced a partnership with Mexican media conglomerate Televisa to launch Spanish-language editions of websites such as Gizmodo, Deadspin, Kotaku, Jalopnik and Jezebel. [11]
On May 8, 2018, the GMG Special Projects Desk published an article that highlighted various issues plaguing Univision. [12] [13]
On June 28, 2018, The Daily Beast reported that over forty GMG staffers would be taking union-negotiated buyouts, thereby averting layoffs. [14]
On July 10, 2018, Univision announced that it would "explore" the option of selling all of the Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion websites under its ownership. [15]
In April 2019, private equity firm Great Hill Partners agreed to purchase Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Univision. [16] The sale was completed on April 8, 2019, with Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion being combined into a new company named G/O Media. [2] [17]
The Onion is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 29, 1988, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Onion began publishing online in early 1996. In 2007, they began publishing satirical news audio and video online as the Onion News Network. In 2013, The Onion ceased publishing its print edition and launched Onion Labs, an advertising agency.
Gawker was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded in 2002, Gawker was the flagship blog for Denton's Gawker Media. Gawker Media also managed other blogs such as Jezebel, io9, Deadspin and Kotaku.
Gawker Media LLC was an American online media company and blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was based in New York City. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, as of 2012, Gawker Media was the parent company for seven different weblogs and many subsites under them: Gawker.com, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel. All Gawker articles are licensed on a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. In 2004, the company renamed from Blogwire, Inc. to Gawker Media, Inc., and to Gawker Media LLC shortly after.
Kinja is a free online news aggregator, launched in April 2004. It is operated by G/O Media. It was formerly operated by Gizmodo Media Group, which was purchased by Univision Communications during Gawker Media's bankruptcy.
Nicholas Guido Anthony Denton is a British Internet entrepreneur, journalist, and blogger. He is the founder and former proprietor of the blog collective Gawker Media, and was the managing editor of the New York City-based Gawker, until a lawsuit by Terry Bollea bankrupted the company.
Kotaku is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
The A.V. Club is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. The A.V. Club was created in 1993 as a supplement to its satirical parent publication, The Onion. While it was a part of The Onion's 1996 website launch, The A.V. Club had minimal presence on the website at that point.
Deadspin is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.
Raju Narisetti is a career journalist and former editor at major international newspapers who has served as global publishing director at McKinsey & Company since 2020. From July 2018 to December 2019, he was a professor of professional practice and director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In October 2017, Narisetti was appointed to the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. He is one of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum.
Gizmodo is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. Gizmodo also includes the subsite io9, which focuses on science fiction and futurism. Since April 2019, Gizmodo is part of G/O Media, owned by private equity firm Great Hill Partners.
TelevisaUnivision is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mexico such as Las Estrellas, Canal 5, Foro, and Canal 9 alongside a collection of specialty television channels and production studios. 45% of the company is held by the Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company Grupo Televisa, which was a major programming partner for Univision until the company sold their content assets to Univision in 2022.
The Root is an African American-oriented online magazine. It was launched on January 28, 2008, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Donald E. Graham.
Univision is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes telenovelas and other drama series, sports, sitcoms, reality and variety series, news programming, and imported Spanish-language feature films. Univision is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has its major studios, production facilities, and business operations based in Doral, Florida.
Jezebel was a US-based website featuring news and cultural commentary geared towards women. It was launched in 2007 by Gawker Media under the editorship of Anna Holmes as a feminist counterpoint to traditional women's magazines.
TUDN is a sports programming division of Univision, a Spanish language broadcast television network owned by TelevisaUnivision USA, that is responsible for the production of televised coverage of sports events and magazine programs that air on the parent Univision network and sister network UniMás, and cable channels Galavisión and TUDN TV channel. The division's premier sports properties are its broadcast rights to Liga MX, select matches involving the Mexico and United States men's national soccer teams, tournament matches from the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América. The division's headquarters are at TelevisaUnivision USA's South Florida headquarters in the Miami suburb of Doral, Florida.
Bollea v. Gawker was a lawsuit filed in 2013 in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County, Florida, delivering a verdict on March 18, 2016. In the suit, Terry Gene Bollea, known professionally as Hulk Hogan, sued Gawker Media, publisher of the Gawker website, and several Gawker employees and Gawker-affiliated entities, for posting portions of a sex tape of Bollea with Heather Clem, at that time the wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Bollea's claims included invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Prior to trial, Bollea's lawyers said the privacy of many Americans was at stake while Gawker's lawyers said that the case could hurt freedom of the press in the United States.
The Fusion Media Group is a division of Univision Communications. The company was launched in April 2016 after Univision bought out Disney's stake in Fusion through the Fusion Media Network joint venture between Univision & Disney-ABC. While Univision is focused on serving Hispanic America in Spanish, FMG is the company's multi-platform, English language division targeting young adults.
Pantaya was an American OTT streaming service targeted for Hispanic and Spanish-language viewers. Content included programs and films released in Latin America and original programming, as well as Spanish dubs from Lionsgate's select catalogue.
G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates several digital media outlets, including Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Jezebel, The Root, The A.V. Club, The Takeout, The Onion, The Inventory, and Quartz.
James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001–2009. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. He is also a past Chairman of the IAB and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN).