Former employees of Gawker.com’s defunct publisher are raising money through a new crowdfunding campaign in a bid to purchase the blog out of bankruptcy and relaunch the website, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The campaign was launched yesterday on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter and seeks to raise at least $500,000. Gawker ceased publication in August 2016 after losing a lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan. “This is a testing of the waters,” said James Del, a former vice president of programming at Gawker Media LLC who is organizing the crowdfunding drive. Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers is also advising, while other former employees are providing input on the project. If successful in acquiring Gawker, Del said that the blog would be operated by a nonprofit foundation. If they reach their funding target but someone else purchases the blog in bankruptcy, Del said that they plan to launch a new publication intended to capture the “Gawker ethos” which he described as publishing unbiased and unfiltered gossip, news articles and writing.
