The Gawker Job Interview

From the New York Times:

The following is an instant-message exchange between Nick Denton, the owner of Gawker Media, and Richard Morgan, who was eventually hired as a reporter at Mr. Denton’s flagship Gawker.com, but who quit earlier this month, after his first full day on the job. This exchange, in which Mr. Denton discusses much of his philosophy behind Gawker, occurred on Dec. 19, 2007. Mr. Morgan provided the transcript.

Denton (4:40:12 p.m.): so, let me tell you what I want to do on the site

Denton (4:40:17 p.m.): nothing that radical

Denton (4:40:27 p.m.): media gossip and pop culture

Denton (4:40:31 p.m.): same subject matter as ever

Denton (4:40:40 p.m.): but understood more broadly

Denton (4:40:52 p.m.): i.e. not just magazine gossip, but tv and web media too

Morgan (4:41:15 p.m.): yeah, emily and doree really did that well with book publishing

Denton (4:41:32 p.m.): and, similarly, on pop culture, much more on web, videogames, etc — the growing parts of culture

Denton (4:41:40 p.m.): we had too much on book publishing

Denton (4:42:01 p.m.): or, rather, too little on the bits of media that actually have an audience

Morgan (4:42:09 p.m.): ha! yup

Denton (4:42:31 p.m.): we could expand gawker’s new york city coverage

Denton (4:42:36 p.m.): but I don’t really want to do that

Denton (4:43:03 p.m.): I’d rather it be a national media gossip and pop culture site, which is based in new york, but can attract a national audience

Morgan (4:44:34 p.m.): like the way boing boing expands beyond the LA/SF world?

Denton (4:44:54 p.m.): I guess so, yes

Denton (4:45:03 p.m.): anyway, tell me what you want to write about

Morgan (4:47:43 p.m.): i like ideas, social trends, themes that are developing and being tested. i’ve been a big fan of steampunk subculture, for example. and how it’s affecting fashion, nightlife, electronics, media. it has a zine! an honest-to-Gawd old-school zine!

Morgan (4:49:20 p.m.): one thing i like about pop gossip is that it is predictable. you can write the GQ profile of Heath Ledger that’ll come out this summer already. Tied to his role as The Joker in the new Batman movie. some [expletive] headline like “Why Is This Man Smiling?” with the subhed “After An Oscar Loss And A Broken Marriage, Heath Ledger Has The Last Laugh.” that kind of [expletive]. you can see it happening before it’s even started.

Denton (4:50:37 p.m.): what’s your item-writing style like?

Morgan (4:51:42 p.m.): it’s hard to say in item form. because what i could show you would be front-of-the-book type stuff. but that gets so overly edited. let me pull up some stuff that’s very “me” from my website. hold on a second.

Denton (4:52:03 p.m.): actually, I gotta get moving — could you send me a few links in an e-mail?

Morgan (4:52:22 p.m.): sure thing.

[Small part of exchange removed to protect confidential material.]

Denton (4:54:24 p.m.): keep an eye out for possible gawker items

Denton (4:54:46 p.m.): when I’m back, I’d like to go through item ideas

Denton (4:54:55 p.m.): see whether we’re on same page

Denton (4:55:13 p.m.): steampunk, for instance, might be worth one post on gawker

Morgan (4:55:13 p.m.): so you mean broad ideas? not based off of what happens today or this weekend, right?

Denton (4:55:24 p.m.): well, no, news items

Morgan (4:55:37 p.m.): “enterprise”

Denton (4:55:44 p.m.): not interested in think pieces

Denton (4:55:48 p.m.): unless they’re rants

Morgan (4:56:18 p.m.): ha! think pieces as long as they’re rants?

Denton (4:56:23 p.m.): the ideal gawker item is something triggered by a quote at a party, or an incident, or a story somewhere else

Denton (4:56:55 p.m.): and serves to expose hypocrisy, or turn conventional wisdom on its head

Denton (4:57:03 p.m.): and it’s 100 words long

Denton (4:57:08 p.m.): 200 max

Denton (4:57:19 p.m.): any good idea can be expressed at that length

Morgan (4:57:19 p.m.): i met this guy the other day at NYPL [the New York Public Library]. bills himself as “librarian to the stars” on his business card. basically, he’s the research helper monkey of all these big-name authors and journalists. that kind of thing?

Denton (4:57:33 p.m.): sounds interesting

Morgan (4:57:33 p.m.): he’s on staff at NYPL

Denton (4:58:15 p.m.): that’s probably enough for an item — the pomposity of his title, unless he was being self-mocking

Morgan (4:58:45 p.m.): his name is David Smith. but i think he goes by David A Smith.

Denton (4:59:09 p.m.): or else the position as yet more evidence of the fierce caste system under which NYC’s creative class suffers

Morgan (4:59:08 P.M.): here’s a little bio on him: http://pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/824/prmID/168

Denton (4:59:19 p.m.): anyway, anything like that is golden

Denton (4:59:22 p.m.): a new word

Denton (4:59:25 p.m.): a bizarre title

Denton (4:59:34 p.m.): microtrends

Denton (4:59:53 p.m.): think of gawker as nyt Sunday Styles, but with much lower threshold for a story

Denton (5:00:16 p.m.): you could do a discourse on the use of the word “sick” — all based on it’s one-time use in 30 Rock

Morgan (5:01:41 p.m.): ok. i’ll send along an email of my writing style. and keep an eye out for gawkery fodder

Denton (5:03:04 p.m.): yeah, if you had 10 items, complete with angle, pulled from the news or your own experiences, would give me better idea of your gawkeriness.

Morgan (5:03:17 p.m.): ok, writing style. plus 10 ideas. yeah?

Denton (5:03:41 p.m.): yep

Denton (5:03:47 p.m.): ideas can be v. v. small!

Denton (5:04:09 p.m.): think talk of the town

Denton (5:04:19 p.m.): but for 25-year-olds, rather than 55-year-olds

Morgan (5:04:28 p.m.): ok. i’ll send the writing-style e-mail first.

Morgan (5:05:09 p.m.): are there forbidden topics? things you hate or are sick of?

Denton (5:05:30 p.m.): bashing of people who don’t deserve it

Denton (5:05:34 p.m.): anything too predictable

Denton (5:06:11 p.m.): e.g. bashing big corporations, Bush administration, Tony Snow

Morgan (5:06:20 p.m.): what about the hyping of people who don’t deserve it? are you on the prowl for the next jakob and julia?

Denton (5:06:27 p.m.): in latter case, Choire made some really bad joke about his cancer, and how he deserved it

Denton (5:06:39 p.m.): I was quite happy with the Jakob and Julia stuff

Denton (5:06:53 p.m.): but we should have more in-house celebrities

Denton (5:06:58 p.m.): can’t rely on allison alone

Denton (5:07:06 p.m.): has to be mixed up a bit

Morgan (5:07:06 p.m.): right, but it was gawker-fueled. so you want more of that?

Denton (5:07:23 p.m.): yes, I like campaigns

Denton (5:07:29 p.m.): running topics

Denton (5:07:35 p.m.): ongoing narratives

Denton (5:07:51 p.m.): they work for tabloids and celebrity weeklies

Denton (5:07:54 p.m.): why not for us?

Denton (5:09:09 p.m.): okay, I’m off

Morgan (5:09:13 p.m.): enjoy your vacation