Gawker Media ad revenue up 39%, so Denton fires more people

Among the doom and gloom of the economic crisis and recession there’s been no stronger advocate of a worst case scenario outcome for new media than Nick Denton. Over several essays, Denton has argued that online advertising will drop 40% in the coming year, and he’s made broad cuts at Gawker Media, including staff and titles to better place the company to deal with it. So you’d think if things were so bad that Denton’s revenue would be decreasing in line with his prediction… but you’d be wrong.

Gawker Media revenue increased 39% in November.

But just for good measure, Denton took the opportunity to undertake a new round of layoffs. According to Media Bistro:

Gawker editor Sheila McClear and Jezebel editorial assistant Maria-Mercedes Lara have been let go, Gawker weekend editor Alex Carnevale’s month-to-month contract was not re-upped*, and three other editors at Jezebel are being made into part-time employees. At Gizmodo, Gawker Media’s top traffic-getter, reporter Benny Goldman was laid off.

Former Valleywag scribe Nicholas Carlson has more details of the revenue breakdown on Silicon Alley Insider.