Jezebel’s Moment (Again)
Jezebel got a great profile in today’s NYT, on the heels of last week’s skirmish about whether or not the Daily Show was a welcoming and equal-opportunity environment for women. Dubbed “A Web Site That’s Not Afraid to Pick a Fight,” the article gives the 411 on Jezebel, the Daily Show dustup, the site’s history and highlights, and a proclamation from Gawker Media honcho Nick Denton that “this is Jezebel’s moment.”
It certainly was last week, after the women of the the Daily Show posted their “The Women of the Daily Show Speak” response to Irin Carmon‘s article on “The Daily Show’s Woman Problem” (see my take on that here.) But as the NYO’s Zeke Turner observed, Jezebel’s moment has been ongoing for a while now.
“We’re absolutely not afraid to take on the things that need to be taken on, and we’re not afraid to say things that need to be said,” new executive editor Jessica Coen (and old-school contributor to both Gawker and Jezebel, back in the day) told the NYT’s Jennifer Mascia. True, and a hallmark of the site since pretty much day one, and certainly since the last NYT profile was published in May 2008. (That sounds like a gotcha, but actually it’s just noting that Jezebel has been both a mainstay and a site used to going for it, hard, since the beginning.) The Daily Show story and the like is a natural extension of that ingrained DNA, even more so since Irin Carmon joined in November as a reporter for the site.
Zeke’s piece reminded me of my own post about Jezebel in July 2008 after the book deal for Lizzie Skurnick, the site’s “Fine Lines” columnist, was announced. It was the first book deal to come out of a Gawker-media column, and one of the reasons I cited was the specific nature of Jezebel and its community:
It’s worth noting that the first such book came from Jezebel. Skurnick is a published poet and author, National Book Critics Circle board member and frequent reviewer for the NYTBR, but Gawker has never had a problem attracting ridiculously talented writers. Jezebel, though, has broken out from the pack of Gawker blogs since its launch in May 2007, barely a year ago. The combination of voice, humor, sometimes taboo subject matter, raw honesty and, dare I say, a certain earnestness has made it a must-read for the online set, and not just women, either. No one is writing critically-acclaimed articles calling Jezebel a bile-filled sewer; they’re writing articles about how it’s welcoming, smart and nice. Generally, people can’t praise it enough.
Well, maybe that doesn’t include certain Daily Show staffers. But it’s still an indication that, despite turnover at the site, it’s stayed pretty much on mission (founding editor Anna Holmes recently departed after three years, passing the torch to Coen; former contributor Moe Tkacik was well-known for some of the more confessional posts). So to answer Zeke’s question about where Coen plans to take Jezebel – if, as she says, it’ll be taking on tough subjects with humor and fearlessness, then it looks like it’ll be going in the same direction.
All that said…this photo of the Gawker office accompanying the Jezebel feature is rather hilariously ironic, all things considered:
Photo of Jessica Coen and Gawker office above by Nicole Bengiveno for The New York Times; photo of Jezebel staffers in 2008 by Annie Tritt for The New York Times.
