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Media - Thursday, July 22, 2004

Gawker Media - Profile

HQ: New York City

Founded: 2002

Investors: Nick Denton has bootstrapped the business with a modest amount of capital. Denton claims that he can take his sites profitable within a few months of launch, although the most ambitious one, Kinja is a money loser at this point.

Management: Denton is the Publisher, which means he determines site concepts, works PR, and takes/cuts checks. He is former CEO of Moreover, which morphed into an enterprise software company - not Denton's bag. Denton filled most of his wallet from the sale of First Tuesday, which began as a global bar party focused on Internet conversations.

Business Model: Gawker has launched 6 sites to date and has at least two in the pipeline. Kinja is a blog aggregator, Gawker, Wonkette and Defamer are gossip blogs that track life in New York, DC, and LA respectively, Fleshbot is a porn blog and Gizmodo covers gadgets.

Competitors: Weblogs Inc. is the first company to rival Denton, although the two have little overlap in terms of coverage other than Engadget and Gizmodo. Although it was founded after Gawker, Weblogs has been rolling out sites at a much faster clip than Gawker.

Dirt: Denton and Gawker have received waves of press attention in recent months. Wired's piece is so over the top, it must be the end. Because Denton is the IT kid of blogging, his every move will be scrutinized. But in a Weblogs v. Gawker smackdown, we'd put our money with Denton -- even though he won't take it.