Vanity Fair's "Blogopticon" is a cheeky, visual response to the question: "Who's worth reading on the Internet?" The diagram arrays the web's most influential blogs by tone and content and includes five of our titles:
Jezebel
Valleywag
Consumerist
Gawker
Defamer
From Vanity Fair: View the Blogopticon and Read the Article.
Jezebel has, in its heady first year of life, ripped figurative glossy covers off women's mags, exposed dirty deceptions in beauty and fashion, condemned superfluous grooming and subservient social conventions, and forcefully remodeled our culture's understanding of the modern female's dilemmas and achievements. Whew!
But the site's readership — at over 1 million monthly unique visitors — isn't the only group to take note of the new feminism. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and FOX News recently featured Jezebel for its prohibition against celebrity bashing. Big media has called this a ban against "bodysnarking," but it's just a slice of the broader, smarter conversation on femininity that's evolving from Jezebel and its vocal readership. Check out coverage of Jezebel and its editorial direction from the big newsmakers:
FOX News guest says Jezebel sets the example.
Jezebel.com is a very popular blog for women... They cover celebrity media, but they said "look, we're not going to tolerate our commenters making negative comments about women's bodies. That's a really positive step, and other media should take a cue from that.
Read the recap post on Jezebel >>
"The Rise of Bodysnarking" names the movement and Jezebel as one of its spearheads.
Jezebel... resolved to do something about weight. This wasn't a gimmick to kick-start dieting among its loyal band of female readers. This was a resolution aimed at changing the way young women talk about one another.... [Jezebel Editor, Anna Holmes] was blowing the whistle on bodysnarking, the snide, often witty, comments that have become a ubiquitous part of under-30 female conversation.
"Not On Our Blog You Won't" profiles Jezebel's unlikely editorial view and commenter community.
The Jezebel blog was founded last spring by Gawker Media as a smart, feisty antidote to traditional women's magazines (or "glossy insecurity factories," as Jezebel describes them).
Jezebel appeals to a young, urban demographic, with a roster of editors whose strong voices inspire loyal followings. Ms. Egan shares details of her intimate life that are not safe for work. Maureen Tkacik...gravitates toward politics and speaks out against what she calls the "idiocracy." Dodai Stewart...pokes fun at magazines and catalogs; in a feature called LOLVogue, she writes satirical captions for fashion spreads.
Jezebel's readers — they often call themselves "Jezzies" or "Jezebelles"— are permitted to post to the site after a first prospective comment is approved by a Gawker Media staffer, and must adhere to some basic rules: be witty and relevant, no whining and don't attack people.
The great bastions of digital (and even print) media view April Fool's Day as a 24-hour window for lawlessness and deception. Hence Google's burgeoning collection of 4/1 tomfoolery and many media outlets' archives of fake news. Gawker Media's love for April's opening day is no different (though some would say that behavior isn't necessarily confined to a single holiday).
This year's punditry? Jezebel announced a sellout (in more ways than one!) to CondéNast's digital arm, CondéNet — complete with a faux press release and requisite notices of editorial slayings. The ladysite then spent the day bathing itself in the Vogue-esque fashion doctrine, vapid celebrity idolatry, and unquestioning man-worship that its audience so loathes. Nothing like dipping into the submissive side of feminism to incite an uproar in the Jezebel community!
The prank won acclaim as one of the day's best from Crain's , the Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times as well as a smug, humorless rejection from CondéNast itself [via Portfolio].
Check out the coverage!
Gawker has finally started to sell itself off. And the first buyer—perhaps unsurprisingly—is Condé Nast. Or so it seems.At least, that's how Gawker's Nick Denton would like us to report the pseudo-news that Gawker Media has sold its shoot-from-the-hips women's fashion and celebrity site, Jezebel. With cross-postings announcing the sale—and disposition of the staff—on both Gawker.com and Jezebel.com Tuesday morning, Gawker Media has apparently and at long last entered the fast-paced media acquisitions market.
A press release, supposedly found on PRNewswire, proclaims that Gawker has sold Jezebel to CondéNet, the Internet arm of Condé Nast, at the top of its popularity. "Launched in May 2007 with only three staff members, the site quickly [has become] popular with affluent, well-educated female 'tastemakers,'" the release declares, claiming Jezebel got "more than 14.5 million page views" in March 2008. The only insight into the gag: A quote from CondéNet president Sarah Chubb, noting that "Of course, even the best concepts need airbrushing!"
By late afternoon, the Jezebel website was emblazoned with a new logo reading Condé Nast's Jezebel, and further announcements of staff changes. (Editors Anna Holmes and Dodai Stewart to leave; editors Christine Taylor-Wood, Eva Braunstein and Daphne Martin, to take over.)
Like most good April Fool's Day pranks, the Gawker/Jezebel hoax had reporters scratching their heads... [Crain's]
And, browse the entire day's spoof coverage on Jezebel!
For thousands of nerds who descend on Austin for SXSW each year, the Bloggies are just a 20 minute blip amidst a frenzy of panels, parties, and nerdery.
But there is something to this awards show that still attracts a lot of attention in the virtual roundups after SXSW, especially as each year sees the blogging medium closer and closer to adulthood. That something is the Bloggies' representation of pure democratic economy at work: blogreaders choosing their favorite blogs. Effectively, consumers electing their favorite producers. It's a sort of "People's Choice Awards" of the blog scene.
This year, Gawker Media received a number of nominations from the blogosphere that culminated in three sweet wins for two of our sites!
Best New Weblog: Jezebel
Jezebel burst onto the lady blogging scene in 2007 and (literally) pissed on the female magazine paradigm of man-pleasing grooming and sex tips.
Best Group Weblog: Jezebel
These ladies know how to work together: their frequent IM chat postings and back-and-forth liveblogging prove it.
Best Computers or Technology Weblog: Lifehacker
Lifehacker, a perennial favorite amongst geeks, continues to publish compelling and fresh technology content.
Cheers to our winners, especially their hardworking editors and the news/gossip that keeps their keyboards clacking!
We awoke this morning to the Observer UK's list of "The World's 50 Most Powerful Blogs." Within the admittedly "idiosyncratic" compilation of regular web favorites and obscure indie blogger manifestos, Gawker took the #10 spot and Jezebel the #22. Although a global canvass, the UK list isn't about empirical figures like reach or pageviews. Instead it serves up what are — in The Observer's opinion — damn clever reads that are stirring up controversy in the educated digital populace.
On Gawker's editorial trendsetting:
"Gawker and its brethren are the epitome of a certain kind of blogging - fast, furious, scurrilous, bitchy and unashamed."
On Jezebel's gritty feminist revolution:
"Last year Gawker Media launched Jezebel - a blog which aimed to become a brilliant version of a women's magazine. It succeeded quickly, in part by acknowledging the five big lies perpetuated by the women's media...It offers the best lady-aimed writing on the web, along with lots of nice pictures of Amy Winehouse getting out of cars."
For full coverage from The Observer at The Guardian site:
Nick Denton and the Observer's favourite blogs
The Brit dishing the dirt on America
The world's 50 most powerful blogs
January's traffic magnets (MacWorld, CES, Scientology) were difficult acts to follow, but February made gains of its own.
Readers posted an astounding 485,393 comments across our 15 sites in February. That puts the average at 16,738 comments per day, which is the highest activity level we've ever seen across Gawker properties.
At 219 million pageviews, traffic declined softly but continues to show momentum. Setting aside the January spike, growth from December to February held strong at 29%. Contributing heavily to this increase — Kotaku (33.8m), Jezebel (16.4m), Consumerist (10.8m), and Valleywag (4.4m) with their highest monthly numbers ever.
Takeaways? Last month's noisy news events may have exited, but publishing and reader activity on Gawker properties continue to chug along, month over month.
Every year, blog popularity contest The Bloggies invites the Internet-at-large to select and promote achievers in independent online publishing. Though their cachet and sex appeal are embarassingly far below real do-gooder contests like Pulitzer or Oscar, The Bloggies do say a lot about what the web audience reads and recommends to others online. So what's buzzing in digital content this year? For starters, 8 of our titles with a collective 18 award nominations!
Deadspin, Idolator, and Kotaku will each vie to win Best Weblog awards in their content categories.
Gizmodo and Lifehacker are nominated for several awards each, including Computing/Tech, Design, Lifetime Achievement, and Weblog of the Year.
New face Jezebel burst on the scene this year with noms for Best Fashion Weblog, Best Group Weblog, and Best New Weblog.
Industry darkhorse Consumerist received nods in the Best Topical Weblog and Weblog of the Year categories.
And lovely lady Gawker will vie with her old guard brethren for the Lifetime Achievement award.
Hearty congrats to our editors and readers for their recognitions in the 2008 Bloggies!
Haven't voted for your favorites yet? Click on over and mark your ballots! Polls close January 31.
Fimoculous.com recently put together a list of The Best Blogs You (Maybe) Aren't Reading, and number 5 on that list was our very own Jezebel. They write:
Gawker Media's modus operandi is to enter a content category (gadgets, politics, sports, music, etc.) by summarizing that industry with enough volume (in both senses of the word) to basically become the essential trade mag in that sector. This is why Jezebel represents the biggest coup in the empire's history. Rather than beguile its way into the women's magazine industry, Jezebel burst onto the scene in May by defining itself in oppositional terms. It isn't so much a thing as it is not those things. To be clear: it is not the celeb porn that Conde Nast and Hearst have been splooging on you from newsstands for decades. Whereas the average Idolator post would fit in just fine in Blender or Pitchfork, Jezebel was an entire take-down of Glamour, Cosmo, and the rest of the airbrushed crew. This is the holy grail of publishing: to find a voice that is completely unique while still appealing to a broad category. Nicely played, Mr. Denton. (Note: By the numbers, Jezebel probably doesn't qualify in the "overlooked" character of this list. But with as many dudes like me reading this "women's fashion" site every day...)
Wow! And it even recognizes Jez's ever-growing traffic!
Traffic is down from last month's mega-high, but still well above September's record. 167,377,226 across the network for November. And our uniques continue to increase, 23.9m globally this month according to Quantcast. New highs for Valleywag, Consumerist, Kotaku and Jezebel.
AdAge had this to say about Jezebel's career-so-far defining item, about retouched Redbook cover photos:
The Jezebel blog post about the Faith Hill cover has racked up a rather astonishing 750,000-plus page views to date and even prompted a five-minute "Today" show segment last week.
The Media Guy [AdAge]
The Jezebel ladies cause quite a stir on the Today Show, regarding their expose of major magazine airbrushing techniques:
Our Fifteenth Minute [Jezebel]
