Reporters React After Private Equity Firm Buys Gizmodo Media Group: ‘Another Dark Day in Journalism’

Caleb EcarmaApr 8th, 2019, 11:25 am
 

Journalists reacted with horror after Univision sold Gizmodo Media Group, formerly known as Gawker Media, to the private equity firm Great Hill Partners, which has plans to use the network of websites for “targeting marketers who are seeking brand-safe content.”

Gizmodo Media Group, which includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Jezebel, The Root, and Splinter, will be renamed G/O Media Inc. by the new owners, per the Hollywood Reporter. Jim Spanfeller, founder of the digital content-focused Spanfeller Media Group, will lead the latest iteration of the Gizmodo brand.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Spanfeller plans to increase the media group’s profits by “automated or programmatic advertising sales, targeting marketers who are seeking brand-safe content and high quality audiences that are difficult to find elsewhere” — a detail that concerned some critics of the sale.

A number of media figures, including some former Gawker employees, voiced concern over the equity firm’s acquisition of the news and opinion outlets, with one person warning this could lead to another “dark day in journalism” — like the recent mass layoffs at Vice, BuzzFeed, and HuffPost. Check out a few of their reactions below:

[image via screengrab]

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Caleb Ecarma

Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma