Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
Just weeks after Gawker was buried and the media had paid its last respects, a parody site dedicated to tweaking its nemesis has sprung up.
Called Gawken, the site promises to “open your mind to the future.” It features a number of quick posts written by pseudonyms including Tim Cook’s Toaster, Elon Musk’s Tesla (“VVRROOOOM VROOOMMMM,” it writes, not unconvincingly) and, of course, someone named Peter Theil, an author not quite named after the venture capitalist who bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s legal battle against Gawker.
The site’s first posts went live late last week, joining the proud ranks of The Clickhole, Google Nest, @ProfJeffJarvis and all other parody media produced for the social web, and it instantly delighted Media Twitter, including more than a few Gawker Media alumni:
Holy fuck https://t.co/0GMONhoAFM pic.twitter.com/78rwIEVYAd
— eve peyser (@evepeyser) September 14, 2016
pretty sure gawken would get funded if it were real
— Max Chafkin (@chafkin) September 14, 2016
This is the content America needs https://t.co/eTblJv3MHy
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 14, 2016
The site’s appearance is the latest piece of evidence that Gawker’s spirit lives on, even though its sister publications have been sold off and the flagship fell. Over the weekend, news erupted of a skirmish that broke out inside Univision over its decision to delete six posts published years ago across several old Gawker Media titles.
So far, no one has come forward to claim responsibility. But if we can sniff out the authors’ true identities, you’ll be the first to know.
More in Media
Digiday+ Research Subscription Index 2025: Subscription strategies from Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others
Digiday’s third annual Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies to identify common approaches and key tactics among Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others.
From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI
We may be closing out 2025, but publishers aren’t retreating from the battle of AI search — some are escalating it, and they expect the fight to stretch deep into 2026.
Media Briefing: Publishers turn to vertical video to compete with creators and grow ad revenue in 2026
Publishers add vertical video feeds to their sites to boost engagement, attract video ad spend and compete with news creators.