{"id":1962,"date":"2008-01-12T20:48:55","date_gmt":"2008-01-13T03:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=1962"},"modified":"2008-01-12T20:50:34","modified_gmt":"2008-01-13T03:38:34","slug":"the-gawker-job-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=1962","title":{"rendered":"The Gawker Job Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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

Denton (4:40:17 p.m.): nothing that radical<\/p>\n

Denton (4:40:27 p.m.): media gossip and pop culture<\/p>\n

Denton (4:40:31 p.m.): same subject matter as ever<\/p>\n

Denton (4:40:40 p.m.): but understood more broadly<\/p>\n

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

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

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

Denton (4:41:40 p.m.): we had too much on book publishing<\/p>\n

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

Morgan (4:42:09 p.m.): ha! yup<\/p>\n

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

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

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<\/p>\n

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

Denton (4:44:54 p.m.): I guess so, yes<\/p>\n

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

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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

Morgan (4:52:22 p.m.): sure thing.<\/p>\n

[Small part of exchange removed to protect confidential material.]<\/p>\n

Denton (4:54:24 p.m.): keep an eye out for possible gawker items<\/p>\n

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

Denton (4:54:55 p.m.): see whether we’re on same page<\/p>\n

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

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

Denton (4:55:24 p.m.): well, no, news items<\/p>\n

Morgan (4:55:37 p.m.): “enterprise”<\/p>\n

Denton (4:55:44 p.m.): not interested in think pieces<\/p>\n

Denton (4:55:48 p.m.): unless they’re rants<\/p>\n

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

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<\/p>\n

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

Denton (4:57:03 p.m.): and it’s 100 words long<\/p>\n

Denton (4:57:08 p.m.): 200 max<\/p>\n

Denton (4:57:19 p.m.): any good idea can be expressed at that length<\/p>\n

Morgan (4:57:19 p.m.): i met this guy the other day at NYPL [the New York Public Library<\/a>]. 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?<\/p>\n

Denton (4:57:33 p.m.): sounds interesting<\/p>\n

Morgan (4:57:33 p.m.): he’s on staff at NYPL<\/p>\n

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

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

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<\/p>\n

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

Denton (4:59:19 p.m.): anyway, anything like that is golden<\/p>\n

Denton (4:59:22 p.m.): a new word<\/p>\n

Denton (4:59:25 p.m.): a bizarre title<\/p>\n

Denton (4:59:34 p.m.): microtrends<\/p>\n

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

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<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Morgan (5:03:17 p.m.): ok, writing style. plus 10 ideas. yeah?<\/p>\n

Denton (5:03:41 p.m.): yep<\/p>\n

Denton (5:03:47 p.m.): ideas can be v. v. small!<\/p>\n

Denton (5:04:09 p.m.): think talk of the town<\/p>\n

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

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

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

Denton (5:05:30 p.m.): bashing of people who don’t deserve it<\/p>\n

Denton (5:05:34 p.m.): anything too predictable<\/p>\n

Denton (5:06:11 p.m.): e.g. bashing big corporations, Bush administration, Tony Snow<\/a><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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

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

Denton (5:06:53 p.m.): but we should have more in-house celebrities<\/p>\n

Denton (5:06:58 p.m.): can’t rely on allison alone<\/p>\n

Denton (5:07:06 p.m.): has to be mixed up a bit<\/p>\n

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

Denton (5:07:23 p.m.): yes, I like campaigns<\/p>\n

Denton (5:07:29 p.m.): running topics<\/p>\n

Denton (5:07:35 p.m.): ongoing narratives<\/p>\n

Denton (5:07:51 p.m.): they work for tabloids and celebrity weeklies<\/p>\n

Denton (5:07:54 p.m.): why not for us?<\/p>\n

Denton (5:09:09 p.m.): okay, I’m off<\/p>\n

Morgan (5:09:13 p.m.): enjoy your vacation<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}