--- title: "Gawker Founder Nick Denton Lays It All on the Table" id: "26484" type: "post" slug: "gawker-founder-nick-denton-lays-it-all-on-the-table" published_at: "2014-12-11T20:25:56+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T18:24:09+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2014/12/11/gawker-founder-nick-denton-lays-it-all-on-the-table/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2014/12/11/gawker-founder-nick-denton-lays-it-all-on-the-table.md" excerpt: "Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, impresses with an honest blog post explaining a management shake-up—one that involves himself. Also: Lessons from a crowdfunding success story." taxonomy_category: - "Executive Leadership" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "Business" - "C-suite" - "Cost Management" - "Leadership" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "C-Level" - "Executive Team" - "For-Profit CEO / President / Owner / Partner" - "VP" taxonomy_persona: - "Executive Leadership" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Gawker Founder Nick Denton Lays It All on the Table Sometimes, admitting that you’re struggling to see the big picture is the first step toward making a positive change. On Wednesday, Gawker Media CEO and founder Nick Denton [announced that he was giving up his solo leadership role (opens in a new tab)](http://nick.kinja.com/back-to-blogging-1669401481) and walking away from day-to-day operations of one of the internet’s largest (and often most controversial) blogging networks. Gawker Media will now be run by a seven-person board, including Denton. His reasons for doing so boil down to focus, or a lack thereof: Increasingly, he writes, he obsessed over one aspect of the business—the innovative commenting platform Kinja—at the expense of the site’s editorial soul. And he admits to making a poor hiring decision in bringing on editorial director Joel Johnson, “whom I thrust into a job which changed under his feet.” “I was so obsessed with the design of Kinja discussions, I didn’t even think to warn that Gawker is always first about the story,” Denton wrote. “I took that for granted. I was in so much in a hurry that I didn’t even look at other candidates, a cardinal sin. I made a mistake, and I’m sorry to Joel, and I’m sorry to those to whom he is a friend.” Johnson [remains with the company (opens in a new tab)](http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/12/8557674/joel-johnson-out-editor-gawker-management-shake) , and the company hopes he’ll remain on board in a strategy role. The post is a must-read for those interested in [the mechanics of transitioning leadership (opens in a new tab)](http://nick.kinja.com/back-to-blogging-1669401481) and [the art of admitting mistakes](http://associationsnow.com/2014/09/roger-goodell-art-owning-mistakes/) . Few CEOs get anywhere near as transparent as Denton does here. ### If You Raise It, They May Come **The Foo Fighters are** one of the most popular rock bands of the past two decades, but sometimes even the best need a nudge to figure out where their fan base is. Andrew Goldin, a fan from Richmond, Virginia, recently convinced the band to play in his hometown for the first time in more than 15 years. And the way that he did it was sort of brilliant: Rather than pleading with the band, he launched a crowdfunding effort [through Crowdtilt’s Crowdhoster platform (opens in a new tab)](https://foofightersrichmond.crowdhoster.com/help-bring-the-foo-fighters-back-to-richmond-virginia) , using a [one-minute video (opens in a new tab)](https://foofightersrichmond.crowdhoster.com/help-bring-the-foo-fighters-back-to-richmond-virginia) and a multichannel campaign to raise nearly $70,000 in ticket sales *before the band had even decided to play*. It was a bold strategy, but Naylor Association Solutions’ Tracy Tompkins notes that the real reason it worked comes down to sheer persistence. And that’s something associations can apply to their own video content efforts. “Producing a video isn’t the end of content creation; it’s one step along the journey toward your goal for that content—whether your objective is increased membership, educational outcomes, or a rock concert in your hometown,” Tompkins writes [on the Association Adviser blog (opens in a new tab)](http://www.associationadviser.com/index.php/foo-fighters/) . ### Other good reads **Your odds of being productive are best** when you first wake up, *99U* notes. That’s [why you shouldn’t waste that time (opens in a new tab)](http://99u.com/workbook/36055/dont-waste-your-two-golden-hours-of-productivity) by surfing the internet. **We’ll just leave this here:** the long, winding tale of a Harvard professor who threatened legal action against a Chinese restaurant [because of a $4 overcharge (opens in a new tab)](http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/10/donations-hungry-urged-amid-harvard-professor-chinese-food-fight/grehaVK4K86YKQjJcjgdMK/story.html) on his takeout order. **Signs Bitcoin is going mainstream:** Now Microsoft, one of the largest companies in the world, [accepts the cryptocurrency (opens in a new tab)](http://qz.com/310524/now-microsoft-lets-you-pay-for-video-games-and-apps-with-bitcoin/) . Gawker’s Nick Denton, right, shown with another online publishing hot-shot, Business Insider’s Henry Blodget. (Financial Times/Flickr) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. 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