Jessica Coen, Et Al.’s Gawker Media Take Two: Escape From New York

Gawker in 2005, featuring Denton, Coen and Johnson

New York magazine lost two high-ranking employees this week, as announcements surfaced that deputy editor Hugo Lindgren would move to the revamped Bloomberg BusinessWeek, while online managing editor Jessica Coen would reenter the Gawker Media world that spawned her, this time as executive editor of the women’s blog Jezebel.

But apart from possible bellwether changes at New York, Gawker Media’s reacquisition of Coen is the fourth in a recent trend: medium-to-high profile bloggers and reporters, nursed as neophytes on Nick Denton‘s teat, coming back to Gawker Media for a second time. Doree Shafrir, Richard Lawson, Joel Johnson and Jessica Coen: If these names make you think of people you follow on Twitter or Tumblr, read on. It seems like their movement — usually away from corporate or old guard institutions — means that this is the future. Right here on the internet?

Gawker used Lindgren leaving the side of his longtime leader, New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss, to chronicle the dying breed of a true Number Two, or the “trusted confidante on staff,” but more interesting is the byline on the piece: Doree Shafrir, a former Gawker.com editor who returned at the start of the new year after a stint at the New York Observer. Now a contributor under the “Culture” umbrella, Shafrir seems to have brought her Observer-style conceptual trend pieces (usually NYC-centric, naturally) back to the flagship site, enjoying both editorial freedom and a relaxed posting schedule. She’s earned it, as a veteran of the NYC media clusterfuck/graveyard/dating pool/drinking team/etc. and the site is richer with her back, whether at a post a month or a post a day.

But it’s also a deliberate move, not unlike hiring John Cook as the “Investigations” team. Denton has gone legitimate and is gunning for a dynasty with long term investments. The moves are also as symbolic as they are practical, with overlord Denton snatching back polished and influential writers that he may see as rightfully his from the more “respectable” companies they bailed for in the first place.

Come with me, if you will, to the sports world, just for one paragraph: Gawker Media was once a minor league team, whipping prospects into shape before shipping them to the big leagues — Vanity Fair, the Observer, New York and more. But in a few turbulent years, the Major League teams (Old Media) struggled financially, leading to an arguable drop in quality. Gawker, in the minors where the costs and pressures were less, started playing better ball, eventually competing with (and beating!) more established teams. With newfound money and respect, they have the cash and cachet to buy back their now fully formed former prospects.

This evolution, for those who have been following the New Media Cabal for years, was teased in the oft-cited n+1 piece (obituary?) “Gawker 2002-2007” by Carla Blumenkranz, but her analysis ended prematurely and her prediction was unnecessarily grave. The piece told tale of a scrappy upstart truly gawking at its idols-turned-victims-turned-bosses: cutting media’s real stars (Tina Brown, Anna Wintour) down to size, ultimately in hopes of impressing (or at least embarrassing) them. A site history follows, from O.G. gawker (lower-case) Elizabeth Spiers to Coen, Emily Gould and Choire Sicha (twice, too!).

Then, the eventual attempted guillotine from n+1: “You could say that as Gawker Media grew, from Gawker’s success, Gawker outlived the conditions for its existence.” Except that three years later it hasn’t. Now, some people who don’t read literary magazines are paying attention. New York is no longer the only audience, like New York is no longer an endgame.

>>>NEXT: More on Jessica Coen, Gawker Media’s future and Nick Denton’s ambition…

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.