Interview with Ken Layne, new owner of Wonkette

As reported earlier today, Gawker Media has parted ways with three of its blogs: Gridskipper, Idolator, and Wonkette.

Gawker head honcho Nick Denton explained to Silicon Alley Insider that the decision to sell the sites  was based on the economy, lack of advertising, and his desire to get lean before the blogosphere implodes. "There's a cold wind coming," Denton told Silicon Alley. "We need to focus on our core titles."

Gridskipper was sold to Curbed and Idolator was ushered to Buzznet, but Wonkette will remain in the family (such as it is). Denton says it was "spun off" to its managing editor, Ken Layne (pictured here and after the jump). Layne and Denton go back to the days of Sploid, an off-the-wall Gawker blog that focused on UFOs and weird news — subject matter that Layne handled beautifully in the late '90s with Tabloid.net (now defunct).

Apparently Layne and Blogads chief Henry Copeland have bought Wonkette from Denton. Because Layne and I are friends, I was able to catch the new mogul on Google Chat early this afternoon for this impromptu interview.

Web Scout: First of all, congrats!

Ken: Thank you. It is a weird ending to the story — or weird new chapter, I guess.

Web Scout: By now everyone has read Nick's e-mail to the Gawker folk, but my first question is: Who will actually own Wonkette, you or Blogads owner Henry Copeland?

Ken:  Well, a new company is forming as I type this, and I am running the editorial side of it. Henry's BlogAds is going to be doing for us what they do for Perez Hilton: exclusively handle the site's sales and marketing, and handle the hosting and tech.

Web Scout: You and Henry worked together in Budapest at the Budapest Business Journal, correct?

Ken: Yes, I've known Henry for a dozen years. He is one of my favorite people and, obviously, the guy who figured out how to turn blogs into a real media industry.

Web Scout: Don't you think it will be odd for an ad company to (co-)own a content site? Has that ever been done in blogging before?

Ken: Oh, BlogAds does not co-own; they are a business partner the same way they are with Perez.

Web Scout: Why on earth do you think Denton would sell Wonkette in the middle of a presidential race?

Ken: It's a good time for the site to make a move, when everything's about politics. But Gawker's ad people just aren't going to move to D.C. and sell political ads for one site when they're selling 200-plus million impressions for gadgets and consumer things. So if we're going to do well, we need ad people who understand political blogs and an agency that sells a ton of political advertising.

Web Scout: Denton says that he has a hard time selling ads for the three blogs it is selling off, not just yours, so wouldn't an intelligent man then fire his sales team instead of the blogs?

Ken: Well, if any of those blogs were doing the kind of traffic Gizmodo does, then yes. I mean, in a way it's going back to the whole ideal of the news blog: One or two people do the editorial, BlogAds sells the inventory, and you kind of omit the whole "publisher" part of the model. It's the Matt Drudge/Perez Hilton/Fark way of doing the Internet, which of course is the way I like to work, at home, with my cocktails and e-mail. And necktie and jacket — I always put on my tie before I go to my office. Must have workplace dignity.

Web Scout: What is your drink of choice nowadays?

Ken: For live-blogging, it's Jameson on the rocks. Otherwise, bordeaux and pinot noir.

Web Scout: Nothing American? Now I see your ways. OK, now according to Technorati, Wonkette is ranked #63, meaning there are only 62 blogs more popular than your site in the whole world. How is it that Denton seems to think that Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper combined only account for 3% of Gawker Media's traffic? Could that be true?

Ken: There is a Coppola claret that we like a lot, and buy by the case. It's from California.

Web Scout: Good save. And Sofia can really stomp a grape, I hear.

Ken: It is true, the traffic figures. Now, Wonkette is one of the very top politics blogs. We did 6 million pages last month — another record — and 1.2 million unique visitors. We're a very big politics site, no doubt. But it's also true that Gawker sites did 200-plus million views last month. And there's your 3%.

Obviously, I like political news to be subsidized by fluff. This is why whatever half-naked tart of the month is on the cover of Vanity Fair, but inside you get these great news features and investigations and political rants. I don't mind that situation. But the truth is that fewer publishers/broadcasters in any medium are willing to subsidize news and politics. Tribune Co. doesn't want to do it, the TV networks don't want to do it.

Web Scout: Don't you think the real reason that Denton wants to get out of the Wonkette business is that if Barack or Hillary gets elected he would have issues with one of his properties making fun of an African American or a woman every day? Ruthlessly? Brutally? Wonderfully?

Ken: Uh, no.

Web Scout: You seem to be one of the few people to have gotten along with Nick Denton over the years. How is that possible?

Ken: I don't know. I've had my battles with Nick, but they have been about work — nothing personal. Nick's one of the few people in America who would pay people to do the kind of writing and the kind of sites I like doing.

Web Scout: Would you say that without Tabloid, Wonkette would never have been what it is today?

Ken: I would say that Tabloid.net had a surprising impact on the early news-blog scene and there are some traces of it today. But it was kind of like a cult band — total failure, but all the fans started their own great bands.

Web Scout: Are there any major changes to Wonkette that you have been begging Nick to implement that you can now finally usher in?

Ken: The main one, really, is BlogAds. That's where the political ads are. In a good newspaper or website or magazine, the ads are hugely important to understanding the world that title is about. Travel mags need those glossy travel ads and the discounter ads in the back; the Economist needs all those weird Help Wanted Federal Bank Executive for Zaire ads — you know? Wonkette needs to be surrounded by every crazy political ad campaign.

Web Scout: Now that you're the owner/mogul/figurehead/decider of the blog, if times get really tough will you consider selling Sara K. Smith calendars and mugs?

Ken: I am actually going to sell Sara K. Smith, in little pieces, should we run into a serious national depression. But I will keep her brain, in an iced punch bowl, with wires between it and my MacBook, so the site will still be funny every morning before I start work.

- Tony Pierce

top photos courtesy Ken Layne, bottom photo of original Wonkette Ana Marie Cox and current Associate Editor Sara K. Smith via Tony Pierce

Comments

[Thecookie]

Stay with us Wonkette! We love you and read you multiple times daily ... bring on the ads just don't compromise the content :)

[miss claret jug]

I'll never understand the businessman who sells off profit for the reason that the entity wasn't profitable "enough". Since when was profit bad? Here's an idea, use that entity to train people. Oh, that's right, this is why I dropped my finance major -- everybody was an idiot -- and so I could roll around in millions of soft, cottony papers measuring 6.14 × 2.61 × 0.0043 in.

[Chud]

Hope the site can make some money and not die!