"Gawker.com to Shut Down Next Week"

The Hollywood Reporter:  The end of Gawker.com is near.

The 14-year-old website will shut down next week, according to a post on Gawker.com.

Univision on Tuesday agreed to buy the six other sites, including Jezebel, Deadspin and Gizmodo, that make up Gawker Media for $135 million, but the broadcaster did not plan to operate the flagship site. The news comes just ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing on Thursday in which Univision will seek approval of its bid.

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton told staff about the shuttering of the website on Thursday, per Gawker.com. The future of Gawker and its archives is still being finalized, but the site is likely to remain online.

Gawker bans ‘Internet slang’

“We want to sound like regular adult human beings, not Buzzfeed writers or Reddit commenters,” new Gawker Editor Max Read says in a memo to the publication’s writers. Words like “epic,” “pwn” and “derp” are no longer welcome on the site. Read also says the word “massive” is “never to appear on the website Gawker dot com.”...

• Internet slang. We used to make an effort to avoid this, and now I see us all falling back into the habit. We want to sound like regular adult human beings, not Buzzfeed writers or Reddit commenters. Therefore: No “epic.” No “pwn.” No “+1.” No “derp.” No “this”/”this just happened.” No “OMG.” No “WTF.” No “lulz.” No “FTW.” No “win.” No “amazeballs.” And so on. Nothing will ever “win the internet” on Gawker. As with all rules there are exceptions. Err on the side of the Times, not XOJane.

• The word “massive.” Is never to appear on the website Gawker dot com. (read the whole thing)

Poynter