Gawker's testosterone trio·
Three new online titles this morning from Gawker Media: Jalopnik, a car site; Kotaku, for video games; and Screenhead, which covers what can only be described as 'funny shit'. They've been described by one blogger as Gawker's testosterone trio. I'm still trying to work out whether that's praise, or rather a suggestion that Gawker's existing gossip sites aren't exactly manly.
JALOPNIK is written by Mike Spinelli, formerly blogging at Lasagnafarm.com. Who knew he was such a gearhead? Here's the blurb: "Jalopnik loves cars. Secret cars, concept cars, flying cars, vintage cars, tricked-out cars, red cars, black cars, blonde cars—sometimes, cars just because of the curve of a hood."
KOTAKU is written by Matt Gallant, a former army officer who has guested on Gizmodo, our gadget site. The blurb: "As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, prediction. Don't get a life just yet."
SCREENHEAD is by Dong Resin. That's his blog name, not his real name. The site is designed for guys who are too lazy to watch TV, and not in the mood for Fleshbot. "Screenhead is an online review of, um, funny shit. Gross Photoshop humor, idiotic Flash animations, laughable Japanese commercials —- updated twelve times a day."
All three sites are designed by Patric King, who also did the logos for Fleshbot and Defamer. He's put together the creative for an advertising campaign for the new launches that we're running on other blogs and websites such as Nerve, College Humor and Fark. And Patric has come up with an interesting creative solution for our largest advertiser, Audi, about which, more below.
Audi has come in as exclusive launch sponsor on Jalopnik. It's part of a wider online campaign for the new A6. Rather than clutter the page with banners, Patric King has integrated Audi into the design of the page. Take a look at the date headers. That's an idea borrowed from Flavorpill. We're throwing the launch party for the new sites at the flagship Audi showroom in Manhattan.
Gawker sites have attracted advertisers such as Nike, New Line and General Electric. But Audi is the most significant advertiser so far. It's evidence that blue-chip marketers are finally looking at weblogs as part of their online media mix.
The New York Times gets a quote from Audi's agency in its article today on the new sites -- yes, the obligatory Times piece on a new Gawker launch. The article quotes Brad Brinegar, chief executive of McKinney & Silver, the advertising agency for Audi, "This seemed like a very low-cost opportunity for us to tap into an intelligent and Web-active audience. I think we all know that more and more, the Web is becoming a key source of information and image."
The existing Gawker sites, like many blogs, have a desirable demographic profile. We run Burst network ads. Burst does popup surveys of readers. Not entirely scientific, but these surveys do allow for some interesting comparisons. Gawker sites, on average, have an audience that's young, upscale, and comfortable online. 59% of Gawker readers are 18-34 years old, compared with 42% for a web benchmark. 44% have household income in excess of $75,000 per year, compared with 22% for the web as a whole.
The new sites bring the total number of titles in the Gawker group to nine: Gawker, Gizmodo, Fleshbot, Wonkette, Defamer, Kinja, Jalopnik, Kotaku and Screenhead. Combined traffic in September 2004 was 19.2m page impressions, compared with 1.6m in September 2003, giving a month-on-month growth rate of 23%.
Advertisers want more of the blog demographic. 18-34 year-olds, particularly guys, have been moving away from network television. (Though maybe not as rapidly as last year's figures indicated.) They're spending more time on cable TV, playing computer games, and online. As more get broadband, so consumption of entertainment online increases. The Online Publisher's Association cites a 2003 study: broadband 18-34 year-olds spend 52% more time online than their dialup counterparts; but time spent on entertainment sites goes up a full 96%. Advertisers -- and embryonic media outfits like ours -- are responding to that shift.
The new sites bring the total number of titles in the Gawker group to nine: 
