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.”

MarketingSherpa, the excellent resource for online marketers, just awarded seven marketing blogs with a readers’ choice awards, comprising votes by 826 respondents. The winners were:

• Best individual’s blog on the general topic of marketing and advertising: Adrants
• Best group weblog on the general topic of marketing and advertising: AdLand
• Best PR-topic blog: CanuckFlack
• Best b-to-b marketing-topic blog: Dana’s Blog
• Best blog on small business marketing: Duct Tape Marketing
• Best blog on online marketing: Search Engine Lowdown
• Top readers’ choice write-in vote: Strategic Public Relations

I have to admit that I haven’t heard of a lot of those and will have to check them out. Honorable mentions were also noted for all categories, so do check out the MarketingSherpa page linked above. MarketingVox, a site I co-founded, received honorable mention in the “Best group weblog…” category.

It’s worth noting that the site that won in that category, AdLand (aka Ad-Rag), is actually a rare example (the only one I know of, in fact) of a weblog that charges readers to access much of its content, specifically video clips of interesting ads, which is the site’s speciality.

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I would have to say this is one of the most innovative blog projects I’ve seen in a while. The site explains its mission thusly:

For Art of Speed, Nike commissioned 15 talented young filmmakers to interpret the idea of speed. Over the course of 20 days, this weblog will introduce these innovative directors, their short films, and the digital technology behind the scenes.

Combining two of my favorite trends: advertainment (advermovies, in this case) and business blogging. What else can I say?

Hardly surprising that the creative engine behind this project is Nick Denton‘s Gawker Media. On Nick’s personal site, he writes a more detailed and thoughtful explanation of what the new site is about and the future of this kind of “campaign blog,” which he likens, appropriately, I believe, to a magazine’s “special advertising section”:

Gawker has produced an Art of Speed weblog, consisting of items about the films, their makers, and digital filmmaking in general. The microsite is at www.gawker.com/artofspeed. It’s a month-long temporary weblog, written by Remy Stern of newyorkish.com, and designed by Patric King of House of Pretty.
…
In principle, campaign weblogs allow a marketer to participate in the weblog conversation, rather than observe it as a passive sponsor. Now we’ll just have to see whether they work.

There is a lot more to his post than what I’ve quoted here, but rather than just reprinting the whole thing, I’d encourage you to read it for yourself. There is no doubt this is a seminal event in the development of business blogs. The NYT also reports on this project.

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