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Gawker Has a New Editor in Chief

A.J. Daulerio's tenure at Gawker lasted just over a year. Daulerio, who took over after editing Deadspin editor has quit, and senior writer John Cook is taking over as editor-in-chief.

By Alexander Abad-Santos
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A.J. Daulerio's tenure at Gawker lasted just over a year. Daulerio, who took over after editing Deadspin editor has quit, and senior writer John Cook is taking over as editor-in-chief. Daulerio took the helm of Nick Denton's flagship site in November of 2011, and at the time Daulerio was best known for publishing a photograph of NFL player Brett Favre's penis. 

Breaking tradition with his recent predecessors, Daulerio jumped rather than wait to get pushed out. According to people familiar with the situation, he gave notice on Wednesday evening and suggested Cook as his replacement. Cook accepted the job on Thursday.

"For those of you not in the people aquarium meeting a few short minutes ago, it is my duty to inform you via email that I’m leaving Gawker Media. John Cook is the new editor of Gawker.com." Daulerio wrote in an internal e-mail to his staff, which was picked up by The New York Observer.

We, obviously, are not a part of the Gawker staff, and were not of the "people aquarium meeting" that Daulerio mentions but The Observer has it that Daulerio's departure came because he and Denton did not see eye to eye about his role there—a role Daulerio wanted expanded:

Sources told the Observer Mr. Daulerio had recently asked Gawker head honcho Nick Denton to take a higher position overseeing multiple blogs at the Gawker Media network but was told by Mr. Denton that he was not “responsible” enough. In spite of this, other sources at the company say he quit and was not fired by Mr. Denton.

Cook, Gawker's new editor-in-chief, has been responsibile for some of Gawker's biggest scoops in recent years, and has made Fox News and its chief Roger Ailes a perennial target of the site. Cook was the Gawker staffer who shepherded "Fox Mole" Joe Muto. This week, Fox News struck back at Gawker after Cook posted a list of New York City's registered handgun owners by posting the site's tip line. Denton squashed the idea that Fox's and gun owners's ire got Cook the promotion:

At the time Denton announced Daulerio's hire, he wrote, "It's not as if Gawker is in crisis [but] we need to release the full potential of the site's excellent roster of writers—and fill out the team with new hires. A.J. has proven himself as both developer and recruiter of editorial talent. That's what the site needs right now. Hence the switch."

Update 6:03 p.m. Denton's memo on Daulerio's departure, which was picked up by The New York Times, spends half of itself promoting the site's remaining writers and recurring features, and even manages to squeeze in the amount of traffic Gawker gets. Cut that all away, here are  the few lines where Denton directly addresses Daulerio's unorthodox performance:

I mean, I really don’t fully understand: AJ breaks all the usual rules of orthodox management and has still been the most successful editor of Gawker.com. (As a former editor of the site myself, I’m slightly piqued.)

...

It’s a testament to the power of encouragement.

And that’s why he’s passing the role to someone on the team. Continuity is our priority.

Daulerio's Full Memo:

For those of you not in the people aquarium meeting a few short minutes ago, it is my duty to inform you via email that I’m leaving Gawker Media. John Cook is the new editor of Gawker.com. This makes me extremely happy.This is the right move for the site in 2013. As for 2014, who the fuck knows? You should keep that attitude and continue to make this site work for you right now. That’s what makes it fun. You were all hired here (or kept here) for a reason. If you have questions, you know I will be here to answer them even after John takes over this desktop covered in Vaseline. xoxoxoxo. Onward.

Denton's Full Memo:

AJ’s tenure at Gawker has been much like him: bold, infuriating, unpredictable… and often brilliant. He’s brought out work as compelling as Adrian Chen’s expose of Reddit’s most notorious troll; he’s drawn in new talents like Caity Weaver and Neetzan Zimmerman; and he’s melded both the writers he inherited and new hires into the strongest editorial team Gawker has ever seen.

I don’t know how he does it. I mean, I really don’t fully understand: AJ breaks all the usual rules of orthodox management and has still been the most successful editor of Gawker.com. (As a former editor of the site myself, I’m slightly piqued.)

Hamilton’s series on the pain of unemployment, the Bain files, web and hacker culture, Trayvon Martin, Rich’s fearlessly honest discussion of gaydom: all made possible by AJ. Even though AJ took the pressure off writers to deliver traffic with every piece, the site now draws 10m visitors a month.

It’s a testament to the power of encouragement.

And that’s why he’s passing the role to someone on the team. Continuity is our priority.

John Cook is the most experienced reporter on the team, a surprisingly powerful opinion writer and a gossip of the most refined kind. He has natural authority. John will preserve the crew and build on the success of 2012. I’m grateful to AJ for leaving Gawker in such great shape and I can’t wait to see what John and his colleagues will do in 2013. Roger Ailes’ excitement may be more muted.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.