Gawker Media sells Consumerist blog
Gawker Media announced Tuesday that it has sold its Consumerist blog to Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.
The blog, which is often an outlet for consumer complaints, will become a new division within the publisher. The current editorial staff is expected to remain, and there are no plans to change coverage, according to a report in The New York Times.
"We don't want to acquire the Consumerist and then squelch it in some way," Kevin McKean, vice president and editorial director of Consumers Union, told the newspaper.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close Thursday, were not revealed.
Nick Denton, founder and president of Gawker Media, put the blog up for sale in November, on the same day he made public his decision to shut down Valleywag, the blog network's Silicon Valley gossip title. He also announced Tuesday his plans to sell the gossip site Defamer.
Denton, who also sold off three of its smallest blogs in April, said the softening online advertising market led to the decision to sell the blogs. On the same day he announced his intentions to sell the Consumerist blog, Denton published a detailed missive about his dire predictions for the online ad market.
"I think people have generally been too optimistic" about online ads, Denton told the Times on Tuesday.
Denton's handling of Gawker has been frugal, continually consolidating resources toward the blogs that were pulling in traffic and ad dollars. Early in October, Denton orchestrated a personnel shuffling that saw 14 percent of the company's editorial staff laid off but new hires made at some of the most successful titles like gadget blog Gizmodo and feminist chronicle Jezebel.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven.
Consumer Reports is so over rated I really don't understand why people pay money to get such inane and misleading reviews some of which were so bad that some manufacturers actually won lawsuits against the Consumers Union, which runs the publication.
Especially on electronics I have found CR rather dubious. I remember when I worked in retail I saw people who brought in "reviews" that CR did and they were utterly devoid of objective information or even ANY information on how they rated things. Furthermore, some of the things they rated seemed difficult to differentiate like ease of use for a computer. Both computer A and computer B use the exact same OS and often virtually identical third party software to boot(eg. Norton/McAffee) so it is hardly a surprise that virtually all the computers got the same rating. That is utterly useless information.
Furthermore it wasn't unusual that the products in question were for products that were already discontinued by the time the issue hit the stands. Unless the stores you shop at carry refurbs or clearence half the reviews are likely to be useless because they reference models no local store carries anymore.
To make matters worse some things that they say aren't even right. For example, they say not to buy extended warranties on computers, except Macs because the warranty is "shorter." Huh? The standard warranty is a year like every other vendor! I am not an Mac fanatic, but I know the information is clearly incorrect. Furthermore, if you go to an Apple Store they will answer questions about MacOS for free even if you didn't buy the Mac directly from Apple. The advice not to buy an extended warranty is generally sound, but the rationale for their exception makes no sense.
Why people pay for reviews that are inferior to the reviews I can read online for free is beyond me. What is important to me is that I know the methodology of one's review, NOT whether the person doing the review has every received a dollar from vendors. I could have a 5 year old who has no preconceived notions of brand names write reviews and they would be even less swayed than the people at CR because they don't even know anything about the brands, but the 5 year olds' review is probably going to be terrible. The notion that not taking money directly or indirectly from anyone that you are reviewing automatically makes your reviews good is a dubious notion.