As Readers Flee, Gawker Backtracks on Big Redesign – Nicholas Jackson – Technology – The Atlantic

I just made the screen capture above and, indeed, it confirms what The Atlantic stated: Gawker seems to have backtracked, in the past 24 hours, from the “One Main Story” design. From the post at The Atlantic:

“The 2011 template represents the most significant change in the Gawker model since the launch of Gizmodo and Gawker in 2002,” Denton wrote. "One could go further: it represents an evolution of the very blog form that has transformed online media over the last eight years.“ But is that what Gawker’s readers want?

I don’t think so. And the early numbers seem to back me up. Denton, an obsessive believer in analytics – he is known for the giant screen in Gawker’s office that displays the number of visitors each story has at any given moment – knows this. That’s why he’s sort of given up already, though I suspect it will be a while before he admits it.

More at the link above and it is a fascinating analysis of the new design, plus the reasons why it might have been changed already (it conflicts with Denton’s goal of 510 million page views per month).

For the past decade and a half I have been making all my content available for free (and never behind a paywall) as an ongoing practice of ephemeral publishing. This site is no exception. If you wish to help offset my labor costs, you can donate on Paypal or you can subscribe to Patreon where I will not be putting my posts behind a lock but you'd be helping me continue making this work available for everyone. Thank you.  Follow me on Twitter for new post updates.