Kinja (website)

Last updated
Kinja
Kinja logo.png
Type of site
news aggregator
Owner G/O Media
URL kinja.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedApril 2004;17 years ago (2004-04)

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. [1]

Contents

History

With the intention of making blogs more accessible to the public, Nick Denton of Gawker Media and Meg Hourihan of Pyra Labs created Kinja, which began as an investigation into the navigation of blogs. It was dubbed Kinja in October 2003. [2]

On February 11, 2013, Kinja 1.0 was launched on Jalopnik. [3] Changes included an entire site and platform redesign, favoring a more Tumblr-esque design. Users received the ability to create their own blogs on Kinja, replacing the old profile system. Comments, replies, and posts all aggregate on the user's personal blog.

On March 11, 2013, [4] Kinja was launched on Gawker Media blogs io9 and Deadspin, followed by Kotaku on March 25, 2013; [5] Jezebel on April 8, 2013; [6] Lifehacker on April 15, 2013; [7] and Gizmodo on April 29, 2013. [8]

In 2017, following Univision Communications' purchase of Gawker Media assets and their reorganization as Gizmodo Media Group, the company began to migrate some of its existing websites to Kinja as well, including The A.V. Club , Fusion (whose online editorial operation was later re-launched as Splinter ), The Root , and The Onion . As of April 2018, ClickHole is also on the Kinja platform. The move was made as Univision staff were heavily interested in Kinja's "inset" feature for external links—which can display Amazon.com affiliate links with product thumbnails and prices, as they can be used to generate e-commerce revenue. [9] [10]

Usage

Kinja is a personal web service that allows its users to "bookmark" blogs, Kinja providing the user with excerpts of recent posts of the chosen blogs. These excerpts, known as personal "digests", are compiled into one page of excerpts, with other categorized compilations available based on such labels as media, music, liberal, conservative, and more. A user's personal selection of digests is easily available to any outside user, allowing others to share their favorite blogs and recent blog posts. Utilizing a webcrawler dubbed Kinjabot (similar to Google's webcrawlers), Kinja creates an internal index of all available weblogs as defined by Kinjabot.

Related Research Articles

Gawker is an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. The blog promoted itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip." According to third-party web analytics provider SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded in 2003, 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 Former American online media company and blog network

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.

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 included Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.

<i>The A.V. Club</i> Online newspaper and entertainment website

The A.V. Club is an American 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.

Lifehacker is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux programs, iOS and Android, as well as general life tips and tricks. The website is known for its fast-paced release schedule from its inception, with content being published every half hour all day long. The Lifehacker motto is "Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done."

<i>Gizmodo</i> Design, technology, science, and science fiction website and blog

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. Gizmodo is now part of G/O Media, owned by private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

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. It was owned by Graham Holdings Company through its online subsidiary, The Slate Group.

<i>io9</i> Blog

io9 is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has shifted to more of a focus on science-fiction/fantasy-based pop-culture including movies, television, video games comic books, and related toys. It was founded by Annalee Newitz, a former policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and contributor to Popular Science, Wired, and New Scientist. Other contributors included co-founding editors Charlie Jane Anders and Kevin Kelly, in addition to Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG), Graeme McMillan (Newsarama), Meredith Woerner, Alasdair Wilkins, Cyriaque Lamar, Tim Barribeau, Esther Inglis-Arkell, Lauren Davis, Robbie Gonzalez, Keith Veronese, George Dvorsky, and Lynn Peril. Between October 2010 and January 2012 io9 hosted the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast, produced by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley.

Jezebel is 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. After the breakup of Gawker Media, the site was purchased by Univision Communications and later acquired by G/O Media.

TV Tropes Wiki that collects and documents plot conventions and devices in creative works

TV Tropes is a wiki website that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, more commonly known as tropes, within many creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has shifted focus from covering only television and film tropes to those in general media such as literature, comics, anime, manga, video games, radio, music, advertising, and toys, and their associated fandoms, as well as some non-media subjects such as history, geography, politics, and other real life occurrences, people, and events. The nature of the site as a provider of commentary on pop culture and fiction has attracted attention and criticism from several web personalities and blogs.

Gina Trapani

Gina Marie Trapani is an American tech blogger, web developer, writer, and technology executive.

Nine Digital Pty Ltd is an Australian digital media company and subsidiary of Nine Entertainment Co.

Remix OS

Remix OS was a computer operating system for personal computers with x86 and ARM architectures that, prior to discontinuation of development, shipped with a number of 1st- and 3rd-party devices. Remix OS allowed PC users to run Android mobile apps on any compatible Intel-based PC.

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 18 March 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.

Fusion Media Group

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.

Dodai Stewart is a writer and editor. In October 2018 she started as a deputy editor on the Metro desk at The New York Times. She was previously editor-in-chief at Splinter News. Before that, she was Fusion's executive editor, and was the deputy editor of Jezebel for seven years.

Gizmodo Media Group was an online media company and blog network formerly operated by Univision Communications in its Fusion Media Group division. The company was created from assets acquired from Gawker Media during its bankruptcy in 2016. 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.

Splinter was an American left-leaning news and opinion website owned by G/O Media. It launched in July 2017 and ceased publication in November 2019.

G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that runs Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Jezebel, The Root, The A.V. Club, The Takeout, The Onion, and The Inventory. G/O was formed in April 2019 when Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm, purchased the websites from Univision for $20.6 million. Prior to the sale, the former Gawker Media properties had operated as Gizmodo Media Group after being acquired by Univision following the conclusion of the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit and subsequent bankruptcy in 2016. Former Forbes executive Jim Spanfeller became the CEO of G/O Media.

References

  1. "Univision Rebrands Gawker Media As Gizmodo Media Group; Starts Translating Content For Univision.com". Forbes. 2016-09-22. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
  2. "Gawker's Kinja, circa 2003". kottke.org. Retrieved 2014-08-12.
  3. "Welcome To What's Next". jalopnik.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  4. "Check Out io9's New Design!". io9.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  5. "Welcome To The New Kotaku: Better Graphics, More Interactive, Same Low Price". kotaku.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  6. "Welcome to the New Jezebel". jezebel.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  7. "Welcome to the New Lifehacker". lifehacker.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  8. "Welcome to the New Gizmodo". gizmodo.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  9. "Fusion is changing its name to Splinter". Poynter. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  10. "Kinja, the publishing system at the heart of Gawker, lives on under Univision". Poynter. Retrieved 2017-09-25.

Sources