#Gawker quietly relaunches, asks readers for an ‘open mind and heart’

Gawker — the snarky gossip site that went bankrupt five years ago because of a lawsuit over a Hulk Hogan sex tape — quietly relaunched on Wednesday, begging readers to have an “open mind and an open heart.”

Picked up at a bankruptcy auction three years ago by Bustle Digital Group, the site reappeared in a third iteration after Bustle’s headstrong CEO Bryan Goldberg attempted to resuscitate the toxic site twice before.

News spilled out this spring that Gawker was making its debut but no specific date was given. A Bustle spokeswoman confirmed that the site launched in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, but declined to provide details as to why it was making such a low-key debut.

Leah Finnegan, a sharp-tongued writer and editor who was tapped to helm Gawker earlier this year, gives hints in her letter from the editor, which sits on the homepage alongside a doctored image of “The Resurrection of Christ,” in which Jesus is holding a Gawker flag and superimposed images of Lena Dunhan’s head and the Phillie Phanatic mascot watch below.

“When Bustle Digital Group first approached me to revive Gawker last year, I said absolutely no way in hell,” Finnegan writes. “Who in God’s name would would want to edit a website that was cratered by an evil tech lord and sullied by a botched relaunch? The Gawker name was toxic, but also weirdly revered; an intractable combination.”

Over time, Finnegan warmed to the idea, which is lucky for Goldberg, who spent the early days of the pandemic approaching loads of New York-based journalists to take the gig. The chief issue for most was the site’s troubled past and the apparent lack of clear direction for its future, sources told The Post.

That past included then-Gawker owner Nick Denton losing a $140 million invasion-of-privacy lawsuit to Hulk Hogan over the site’s posting a video of the wrestler having sex with his best friend’s wife. That debacle caused the site to shutter and file for bankruptcy in 2016. Goldberg, who was often mocked by Denton’s Gawker as a “clueless scamp,” bought the site for $1.35 million.

Goldberg tried to relaunch the site two years later under Carson Griffith, but before it got off the ground, the Daily Beast wrote a story accusing Griffith of making racist and homophobic remarks to her tiny relaunch staff. The kerfuffle landed in the courts and it tripped up the launch.

A year later, Goldberg tapped former Details editor in chief Dan Peres, but the editor had trouble hiring staffers and had couldn’t get the relaunch off the ground.

With this in mind, Finnegan asked readers to “approach this new iteration of Gawker with an open mind and an open heart,” as they scroll through the highly stylized website and eclectic columns like “Ask a F-k up,” self-mocking posts like “Here’s what some people think about Gawker coming back” and irreverent items entitled: “Adam Neuman spotted in the Hamptons with a pizza and a rabbi,” or “Do Justin and Hailey Bieber hate each other?”

“We are here to make you laugh, I hope, and think, and do a spit-take or furrow your brow, or maybe go ‘huh!’ or ‘wow!’ or ‘damn!’ or ‘what the f-k?’ or ‘I’m glad someone finally said it!,”‘ concludes Finnegan. “So, I hope you like it. And if you don’t, that’s really more of a ‘you’ problem, I think.”