Gawker to relaunch next year

Gawker will relaunch next year, likely in the first half of the year, new owner Bryan Goldberg reportedly wrote in a memo Tuesday to the staff of his other property Bustle.

Goldberg wrote in the memo, which was obtained by Variety, that the new website “will build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs — and learn from its missteps.”

{mosads}“We won’t recreate Gawker exactly as it was, but we will build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs — and learn from its missteps,” he wrote. “In so doing, we aim to create something new, vibrant, highly relevant, and worth visiting daily.”

He also wrote that Gawker “will be completely distinct from our other properties and sit within a separate corporate subsidiary.”

“That said, it will have access to our shared resources, technology, and business platform,” he added.

Amanda Hale has been hired as the publisher of Gawker, Goldberg said. She was most recently chief revenue officer of The Outline.

Gawker was purchased in July by Goldberg in an auction in bankruptcy court.

Gawker, which was previously the provocative flagship site of Gawker media, declared bankruptcy in 2016 after losing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit to ex-pro wrestler Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan. Bollea brought the lawsuit after Gawker published a leaked sex tape of him and Heather Clem, the wife of a former friend.

Other former Gawker properties, including Deadspin and Jezebel, were sold to Univision Communications in August 2016 for $135 million.