IP Democracy: Denton Talks Poor About Blogging

The New York Times’ David Carr has this article today about Gawker Media founder Nick Denton, which touches on the perennial question: is there a blog bubble? The article doesn’t even remotely answer that question because Denton himself is a paradox on the question.

On the one hand, Gawker is shutting down some blogs that failed to fly. On the other hand, the company is launching new blogs that might soar.

This behavior, however, is not contradictory. Blogs are, as Denton points out, just like any other media. Some work, some don’t.

“We are becoming a lot more like a traditional media company,” Mr. Denton said last week. “You launch a site, you have great hopes for it and it does not grow as much as you wanted. You have to have the discipline to recognize what isn’t working and put your money and efforts into those sites that are.”

Even though Denton swears there is a blog bubble, that isn’t stopping his company from continuing to delve deeper into this undeniably hot new medium.

Mr. Denton, whose practice of poor-mouthing his own enterprise may have some competitive advantages, is not a complete blog bear. This summer, the company will introduce a music site, no doubt full of unspeakable truths and half-truths from behind the curtain. Mr. Denton thinks a few other opportunities are worth investigating, but is not making any bold predictions.

Carr makes an interesting observation about Denton, one that would fit right into Gawker’s no-holds-barred gossipy blogdom.

The antithesis of the schmoozer — human beings are, at best, companion media to Mr. Denton — he stares at traffic numbers and incoming e-mails as he talks.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on July 3, 2006 9:22 AM to IP Democracy