Nick Denton

I’ve written here before about Nick Denton, the publisher behind Gawker, Wonkette, Fleshbot, Gizmodo and, most recently, Defamer, all blog properties he hires other writers to produce, all of which are doing considerable traffic and have played host to real advertisers like British Airways, Absolut Vodka, Jose Cuervo, Warner Brothers Music, Intuit and others.

Not to name drop, but just for context, Nick and I are buddies from years ago (as in, he had Thanksgiving at my place last year), back from when he was a journalist for the Financial Times (and I for Boston Globe and others), before Nick quit journalism for dot-com entrepreneurship to found Moreover and then rather accidentally made a bunch of money on First Tuesday. Nick was the guy who turned me onto blogs, and in the last couple of years he has dedicated himself to being at the forefront of those pioneering the idea of commercial weblogs.

Nick’s a genuinely nice guy and obviously an uncommonly creative thinker (check out his latest project: ad campaign blogs), but what is perhaps most interesting about him (and anyway it’s the point of this rather embarrassingly butt-kissing post) is what a media darling he is. I’ve never known anyone since I did PR for Marimba’s Kim Polese who was such a publicity magnet. Towit, here are three articles about him published in just the last few weeks in major media, only the tip of the iceberg for this sort of stuff:

• NY Times: Nike Tries a New Medium for Advertising: The Blog
• Wired: How Can I Sex Up This Blog Business?
• Business 2.0: What Makes Nick Tick?

I think Ad Age may also have something in the works, but I haven’t seen it yet. Another buddy, Steve Hall, interviewed for the NYT piece, told me that the journalist Nat Ives asked him, “Does it seem like we’re writing about Gawker a bit too much?” Uh…yeah, maybe! FYI, my cell phone is 646 554-0963, if anyone wants to interview a blog expert other than Nick Denton anytime soon…

UPDATE:
ClickZ writes: “Questions for Gawker Media Publisher Nick Denton” (July 6) in which he reveals part of his secret: “Exercise, sometimes. Alcohol, often.”