Gawker has finally announced who will take the interim editorial reins of the company while it looks for new permanent staff.
John Cook will be its acting executive editor, Leah Beckmann is now Gawker's editor, and Hamilton Nolan has been named deputy editor, according to a new report from IB Times. Before, Cook served as executive editor for investigations, Beckmann as deputy editor, and Nolan was senior writer.
"My agenda is: A Summer of Peace. Stability. Quiet," Cook wrote in an internal staff memo that was quoted in the IB Times post.
Gawker staffing has been in the midst of a massive shake-up. After a controversial post was deleted from the site, a series of top editors and writers resigned (as well as took with them a two month severance package). While some staffers left on their own accord, sources familiar with the situation tell Business Insider that features editor Leah Finnegan and William Arkin, who founded Gawker site Phase Zero, were both asked to leave by the company.
Now that the dust appears to have settled, Denton and his business team seem to have decided on an editorial team for the time being.
Meanwhile, the company has also been fighting Hulk Hogan in court over another controversial post it published a year ago. Gawker and Hogan squared off today in court, after Hogan filed a series of document claiming Gawker breached confidentiality in an attempt to sour the wrestler's public opinion.No decisions were made today and, in fact, the judge said that they wouldn’t go back to court until March of next year.
With these new appointments, however, Gawker appears to be in a cooling off period. In his memo, Cook made reference to the intense month the site has had. He then added, "But we are all still here, and you are some of the most talented and sought-after journalists working on the internet, and we have at our disposal — right now, at your fingertips — an immense and powerful machine for illuminating, skewering, praising, and changing the world around us."
