Media

Kickstarter To Save Gawker Doesn’t Even Come Close To Meeting $500,000 Goal

(John Pendygraft-Pool/Getty Images)

Justin Caruso Contributor
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A fundraising effort on Kickstarter.com by former Gawker staffersto buy back the website has failed, not even coming close to its goal of raising $500,000.

As of the fundraiser closing 15 hours ago, it had only raised $89,844 out of the $500,000 goal.

Gawker was a popular website known for gossip about media and entertainment news. The site lost a lawsuit in March 2016 over posting a sex tape of Hulk Hogan without his consent and refusing to take it down even after a judge ordered it to. Hogan won $140 million in the case, forcing the site to go bankrupt.

This Kickstarter fundraiser was an effort by former Gawker employees to buy the site back. The description reads in part, “We’re a group of former Gawker Media employees across editorial, tech, and business, and we want to put in our own bid to buy it back.” (RELATED: Former Gawker Employees Attempt To Resurrect The Site)

It added, “We believe the site can thrive in an entirely membership funded model.”

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