WEB JAM

T.O. touchy about gossip
Why Toronto can never have a Gawker
By Joshua Errett

When considering the best websites in Toronto, the mind often wanders from the question of what is (see the Best Of section) to what could be. One recurring example: could Toronto ever have a media and gossip site like NYC’s Gawker?

It’s an irreverent, fearless and not-so-serious site that breaks news (aka gossip) no other media outlet will. More than all the other sites in the world, Toronto seems always to be lusting after its own Gawker. That has something to do with our creepy crush on New York and with the fact that both cities are media centres with a modicum of celebrities, and both have insatiable online audiences.
 
Alas, despite our ongoing Gawker fetish, Toronto will never have anything remotely close to it.
 
And this I can say with certainty.
 
In 2004, a fellow experimental blogger and I set out to woo a branch of Gawker to Toronto. It was a brief and fruitless affair; Gawker founder and brain trust Nick Denton gave a cold shoulder to the idea.
 
Denton did, however, direct us to Gothamist, a more franchise-ready New York website marked at its best by the same sass as our beloved Gawker.
 
Even if we couldn’t get into bed with Denton, we decided we wanted the same set of spices that made his site so delicious. So when we started our Gothamist site, Torontoist, later that year, we went for the gusto. And it just didn’t work.
 
First and most obvious, Toronto, or at least its core, is too small, and it often feels like the city fixates on only a handful of celebs at a time. You can only blog about Leah McLaren, Kevin Drew and the former cast of Degrassi so many times.
 
But the larger impediment to a Toronto-centric gossip site, we found out, is the bizarre hypersensitivity of some of our best about-towns.
 
Blogs about notable boldfaces were often greeted by touchy replies.
 
On one occasion, we took a frivolous guess at the age of a Globe & Mail movie critic and within hours received a sad little e-mail about how wrong we were. After sniping at someone we considered an underwhelming Raptors player, his mother messaged us about how upset she was.
 
Then, of course, there was the nastiness when our bark was answered by a disproportionate bite. Numerous lawsuits were threatened (most times by a local author), and warnings from certain members of the mainstream media verged on “You’ll never work in this town again!” Other psychopaths actually wrote, “I’m going to kill you!” 
 
Whenever anything critical is written online in Toronto, it’s personal. It’s a very stifling, un-NYC atmosphere – and sadly not one a Gawker-type site could ever thrive in.
 
Still, as I’ve said before and will say again, I strongly encourage others to try.
 
NOW | October 29-November 5, 2008 | VOL 28 NO 9
Copyright 2009 NOW Communications
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Comments
Posted by Truther on 10/30/2008, 09:30 AM
You're not revealing a point, Josh. None of the people you were going after knew who you were. That's how it works.

Posted by Sensitive on 10/30/2008, 11:34 AM
Also -- maybe -- who cares? Maybe it isn't some deficiency in Toronto but rather people here don't care? Gawker gives nothing back, and it's a symptom of a nasty culture. Toronto isn't missing anything by not having a Gawker. It's funny, this opinion parallels neocon opinions that Canada needs to be more like America in terms of the free market and stuff. Want Gawker? Well, you'll get a lot more than just some bitchy website. Now, that's very NOW mag, isn't it.

Torontoist also may just have bad writing.

Posted by Sensitive on 10/30/2008, 12:21 PM
Also -- maybe -- who cares? Maybe it isn't some deficiency in Toronto but rather people here don't care? Gawker gives nothing back, and it's a symptom of a nasty culture. Toronto isn't missing anything by not having a Gawker. It's funny, this opinion parallels neocon opinions that Canada needs to be more like America in terms of the free market and stuff. Want Gawker? Well, you'll get a lot more than just some bitchy website. Now, that's very NOW mag, isn't it.

Torontoist also may just have bad writing.

Posted by Leonardbast on 10/30/2008, 01:04 PM
Have you considered that maybe you and your co-editors suffer from the same "bizarre hypersensitivity" that you criticize in your targets? If you had a thick skin and you were determined to accomplish your mission--i.e. create a Gawker for Toronto--then you wouldn't be easily dissuaded by a few grouchy emails. I'm surprised that you were surprised that people reacted testily to your snark. Of course your targets were going to react as they did--it's natural. Instead of complaining about their hurt feelings, you should have sucked it up and got on with it. You had the choice whether to press on or retreat in the face of a little resistance. Why did you retreat? Who's whining now?

Posted by Disparishun on 10/30/2008, 01:24 PM
I used to read Torontoist quite actively, and I have to echo Leonardbast. I'm not privy to their private correspodnence, but the publicly-posted replies and comments on Torontoist simply mirrored the tone of Torontoist's posts themselves -- many of which were indeed petty, personal, and just plain mean. It sounds like Errett is lamenting that Torontoist couldn't have it both ways. But, well, why should it?

Posted by kenneth dryden on 10/30/2008, 01:29 PM
We don't have the same culture of invasiveness that they do in the states with regard to high profile individuals. We don't break down the decades-old associations and actions of our politicians, the actions of our (few and minor) celebrities aren't widely disseminated, that kind of thing just isn't in our character.

Beyond that, we lack the critical mass of 'creative underclass' that sustains Gawker, both in stories and comments.

We're better off.

Posted by chenyip on 10/30/2008, 04:07 PM
Ah, perfect. I see the Thin-Skin train from Sensitivityville rolled in right on time.

Posted by Toad on 10/30/2008, 04:48 PM
If you love gossip so much, why didn't you give us the names?

Posted by the late tupac shakur on 10/30/2008, 07:21 PM
obviously the raptor was vince

Posted by Brett Lamb on 10/31/2008, 05:31 PM
ACK! My head just exploded! I poked some fun at Torontoist when it launched and you guys flipped out and complained that I 'wasn't supportive'. You called me an "a-hole" in at least one article. I finally emailed your co-editor to get her to review the posts to show her that they were intentionally silly and only mildly critical and that you were both being ... er ... hypersensitive?

Posted by Brett Lamb on 10/31/2008, 05:33 PM
ACK! My head just exploded! I poked some fun at Torontoist when it launched and you guys flipped out and complained that I 'wasn't supportive'. You called me an "a-hole" in at least one article. I finally emailed your co-editor to get her to review the posts to show her that they were intentionally silly and only mildly critical and that you were both being ... er ... hypersensitive?

Posted by baba on 08/10/2009, 07:18 AM
Gawker website is full of snarky bitchy retorts ...none of them are worth the time to read. These idiots sit at their computers and google then post so-called witticisms.

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