Profiles

How Nick Denton Built His Blog Empire

New Yorker profiles Gawker Media Founder

Gawker Media Founder Nick Denton is officially having a moment: Following a big profile in New York Magazine, he’s been profiled in The New Yorker. Among the profile’s good revelations: Denton was known around the Financial Times, where he began his career, as “Dick Nenton,” for his naked ambition. Writer Ben McGrath also offers a smart take on the flagship blog’s growth: “Gawker is one of those things which, like neighborhoods, are never as good as when you first discovered them. What it is selling, essentially, is a pose of knowing, cool detachment. Very little of what Denton publishes qualifies as gossip in the traditional sense. It’s a sensibility. As the audience for that sensibility grows, and as the individual voices evolve to suit the expanded reach, the early movers and élites naturally feel some sting of betrayal. But Denton is, above all, a realist, with little patience for nostalgia. He’s the hipster who turns, unapologetically, into a developer.”