Leaked Memo Reveals Gawker Has Multiple Million-Dollar Advertising Accounts
Jan 25, 2013, 00:23 IST
Erin Pettigrew/TwitterErin Pettigrew will be leading the charge on eCommerce for Gawker.Ad Age's Jason Del Rey has published an email Nick Denton sent to his staff at Gawker Media. In it, Denton emphasized that the company will be taking e-commerce seriously, and Denton intends for it to become a meaningful source of revenue for his media empire in 2013. Denton told Del Rey via Google Talk, "We've had some very promising early tests [with affiliate links]. Thirty-thousand dollars in a single day in commission on a Web hosting deal." In addition, the company had six advertisers spend over $1 million with Gawker last year. Gawker Media also includes tech brand Gizmodo and Deadspin, the sports site that broke the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax news. Denton's memo says Andrew Gorenstein is being promoted to chief revenue officer of Gawker Media and James Del is becoming the company's executive director. Erin Pettigrew will lead the charge on the e-commerce initiative; her team will be "expected to produce at least 10% of revenues" this year. Here's the bit about the e-commerce strategy. You can read the email in full at Ad Age. We're reaching for 40% revenue growth this year, an acceleration from 26% in 2012. We had six clients spend over $1m with us last year... ....Another native of Gawker, Erin Pettigrew, will lead the development of Gawker's e-commerce business, which is expected to produce at least 10% of revenues this year.