Idolator Survey [surveymonkey.com]
[Photo: Getty Images]

(Honestly, if I could get away with posting YouTube clips from Home Movies all day one day, I would.)

Home Movies - Trust Yourself [YouTube]
[Photo: Marcin Wichary]

I'm amazed we've managed to keep a lid on this news; that, given your
naturally gossipy natures, must be a first! We're spinning off three
sites: Idolator, Gridskipper and—this one may be a surprise—Wonkette.
There were indeed some rumors about Maura Johnston's music blog late
last year; they were true of course. For reasons that I'll explain
below, both it and our travel and politics sites have better
commercial futures outside Gawker than within. (Excuse the corporate
lingo: some of it is unavoidable.) But, first, the facts, which will
be hitting the wires later this morning, or as soon as you leak this
email. Go ahead!

* IDOLATOR is going to Buzznet, a music-focused web and social
network. Buzznet recently acquired Idolator's chief rival, Stereogum,
and received a big investment from Universal Music Group.
* GRIDSKIPPER isn't going far: it's being taken over by Curbed, the
network founded by Lockhart Steele, in which Gawker Media is a
shareholder.
* WONKETTE is being spun off to the managing editor, Ken Layne, former
founder of one of the web's very first news sites, Tabloid.net. The
title will become part of the Blogads network of political sites,
which includes Daily Kos, among others.

Why these three sites? To be blunt: they each had their editorial
successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the
advertising than we did.

Music audiences are fragmented across genres; Maura's Idolator gave
Stereogum a good run, but a group with a whole array of music sites
will command more attention from record labels than we could. In the
case of Gridskipper, our urban travel guide, we could never match
Curbed in attention to city-specific content and advertising. As for
Wonkette: political advertisers are a strange breed; they don't come
through the same agencies our sales people deal with.

I'm relieved we've found pretty decent homes for the three sites, and
most of their writers, but we're gutted to lose them. Idolator's Pop
Critic's Poll was a tremendous coup—and Patric's bleeding-heart logo
for the site was one of my favorites. Gridskipper is so far the most
sophisticated travel blog: it entirely deserved its inclusion in
Time's list of the 50 coolest websites.

And Wonkette is one of the brands with which the company is most
associated; people will be shocked that we would ever part with it.
The political site has won an array of Bloggies and other awards; it
introduced the word ass-fucking into the dictionary of political
abuse; the founding editor's slippers are even on display in the new
media museum in Washington, DC. And Ken and his team have brought a
new liveliness to the site this election season—validated by the
record traffic of the last three months.

So why not wait, at least till the election? Well, since the end of
last year, we've been expecting a downturn. Scratch that: since the
middle of 2006, when we sold off Screenhead, shuttered Sploid and
declared we were "hunkering down", we've been waiting for the internet
bubble to burst. No, really, this time. And, even if not, better safe
than sorry; and better too early than too late.

Everybody says that the internet is special; that advertising is still
moving away from print and TV; and Gawker sites are still growing in
traffic by about 90% a year, way faster than the web as a whole. But
it would be naive to think that we can merely power through an
advertising recession. We need to concentrate our energies, and the
time of Chris Batty's sales group, on the sites with the greatest
potential for audience and advertising.

The dozen sites that remain represent some 97% or our 228m pageviews
per month, and an even higher proportion of our growth and advertising
revenue. (Key facts are below, in case anyone asks.) We'll be able to
devote more attention to breakouts such as Jezebel and io9, as well as
established titles such as Gizmodo and Kotaku, which are becoming
utterly dominant in their domains. And, then, once this recession is
done with, and we come up from the bunker to survey the internet
wasteland around us, we can decide on what new territories we want to
colonize.

Both Noah and I are around to answer any questions. On email, IM, or
phone. I'm [redacted] and Noah is on [redacted].

Regards

Nick

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

GAWKER MEDIA KEY FACTS
* A dozen sites, Gizmodo first launched in August 2002, most recent,
io9, in January 2008
* Gawker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Defamer,
Jezebel, Valleywag, io9, Consumerist, Fleshbot
* A record 18 "Bloggie" nominations in 2008, way more than any other
blog collective (one of those was for Idolator)
* Audience of 29.7m unique visitors a month for the whole network, up
82% at annualized rate (http://www.quantcast.com/p-d4P3FpSypJrlA)
* Each individual site has at least 1m uniques or, in the case of io9, soon will
* Pageviews of 227m in March — 219m if you take out the three sites
being spun out — up 89% on a year earlier (Sitemeter)
* For those who measure these things, Gawker is the web's leading
independent blog group

First, log in at the top of the page, using your commenter ID and password. (If you don't have a commenting account already, click the "new user" to sign up.) Once you're logged in, click on the part of the page that says "welcome, [your name]!"; you'll be taken to your commenting homepage. Here, you can update your picture, screen name, and link to your Web site; you can also read comments you've left in the past, and find out what people you like—and people who like you—are up to.

How to accomplish that last part? Well, now, you can add "friends" to your commenting account. The next time you notice a comment (in a good way, or maybe even in a so-bad-it's-good way), click the "+" button next to it; that adds the commenter in question to your roster of "friends," and adds you to that commenter's "followers" page.

After you have added someone to your roster of friends, links to their latest comments will be mixed into the regular string of Idolator posts in real time—so you can follow what the people whose contributions you're interested in are talking about on all of Gawker Media's blogs.

If you want to see who's following you, hit your profile page. If you get sick of someone's constant mouthing off, click the "x" button next to their commenter name. And if you want to see one commenter's entire contribution to Gawker Media in one fell swoop, click on their commenter name to head to their profile page—where you can write a personal message, if you're so inclined (or star-struck).

Any problems with these new features? Let us know—and note your OS and browser type—in the comments below, or at tipsATidolatorDOTcom.

Editor-At-Large:
Jess Harvell | E-mail

Critics' Poll Editor:
Michaelangelo Matos | E-mail

Researcher:
Kate Richardson | E-mail

1. Who can leave comments on Idolator?

Anyone who's auditioned successfully to become a commenter (see below) or anyone who's received an email invitation from us or a friend. The comment system is invitation-only because our editors want to spend more time providing new content and less time moderating comment threads.

2. How can I become a commenter?

To become a commenter, you need to audition, which entails leaving at least one comment on the site. To do so, click on the New User link at the bottom of any post. On the next screen, type an interesting, substantial or highly amusing comment into the text field below the post, then enter your desired username and password. Click the "submit comment" button. Your comment won't show up until (and if) we approve it.

We only approve the comments we love — so make sure you're adding something of quality to the post. If we approve your comment, your username and password will be activated and you'll be able to login to comment freely from then on (or at least until you get banned).

Two tips for auditioning to become a commenter: First, leaving multiple high-quality comments on different threads using your newly created username increases your chances of having your comments — and therefore your username — approved. Second, if a comment from a newly created username doesn't show up on the site, that's because it's still awaiting approval. There's no need to submit the same comment multiple times.

3. Can I comment anonymously?

Absolutely. Idolator's comment system is designed so that you can register and post anonymously. We won't even know who you are, unless you tell us.

Here's how to ensure that you register anonymously. When you create your username, choose one that's unrelated to your real identity. Then, add an anonymous nickname in your user profile. We won't be able to link your username/nickname with your offline self.

We do ask for an e-mail address so that we can e-mail a new password in case you forget it. To preserve your anonymity, use an anonymous Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail account. Or, if you want to remain totally under the radar, and you're good at remembering passwords, leave the e-mail field blank.

4. Can I be banned from commenting?

Yes, if your comments are excessively self-promotional, obnoxious, or even worse, boring. There will be no warning, and no appeal. (For tips on good comment etiquette, see Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments.)

Thrill to this brief glimpse of your Idolators out from behind the laptops and in front of videographer Alex Goldberg's camera after many, many drinks at Monday night's anniversary party. Watch as Maura babbles excitedly and I stand there like a creepy congenital idiot with my mouth hanging open the whole time. Probably not our finest moment—at least Goldberg chopped my two massive thumbs-up for the Killers—but hey, at least you finally learn how to produce the site's goddamn name.

So, the party. It's set for Sept. 24—a week from Monday—and it'll be at the New York City Knitting Factory's Tap Bar, with sets by Baltimore's Monarch and Brooklyn's My Teenage Stride. (There will probably be a DJ of some sort, too.) There's no cover, and it starts at 9 p.m.; if you'd like to meet Jess and me while we're still somewhat coherent, I'd recommend arriving on the early side.

We do not host "leaked" pre-release tracks that have not been sanctioned for posting by record labels. However, because a leak is newsworthy, we'll continue to link to sites that carry them in our intermittent "Leak Of The Day" feature.

Hello, everyone. Maura here. It's my first day in the editor's seat, and what better way to introduce my tenure than with the video for Amerie's summer-single-in-waiting "Gotta Work"—even if I have serious misgivings about all the Pussycat Dolls biting, a.k.a. the obvious attempt to get her record noticed on these shores? (Here's hoping there's an alternate "headbanging in front of bucket-drum-players" version of the clip floating around somewhere.)

Anyway, things will be in a state of semi-flux around here for the next few weeks: people should be permanently installed around me soon; a redesign similar to the one other Gawker sites have undergone will be put in place here early this week; and any first-person references will probably be in the singular now, although I have to say that after ten months, the semi-royal "we" is a tough, tough writing habit to break. But I'm really excited about the terrific parade of guestbloggers coming on board to assist me, beginning with Dan Gibson today.

One thing that hasn't changed: You can keep sending tips to the usual address. Also, the crabby '90s nostalgia will still be painfully high, if a bit more tinged with finds like this: the entire Love/Hate catalog, available as free MP3s. (Black Out In The Red Room did come out in 1990, after all.)

Amerie - Gotta Work [Offical Video] [YouTube, via AmerieWeb]
love/hate rock band love/hate everything lovehate metal lovehate [Official site]

Though we've eagerly crapped on some of the web's worst music writing, we're acutely aware of our own twisted, tortured prose. So, in the spirit of fairness, we present our first Pick Of The Idol poll, where you tell us which of our music writeups was so bad, it had to appear on a hastily produced music blog.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Idolator's MP3 archive

We've all been waiting, and now it's here: Idolator's first Jackin' Pop Poll, edited by Michaelangelo Matos, is now live. We've got the results, a few essays, and a gallery of the poll's top artists ready for you to click through and debate over. Enjoy, and be sure to use the comments section to let us know what artist every critic out there inexplicably forgot to laud.

Jackin' Pop Survey 2006