Nick Denton Quotes

Most good media come out of somebody saying, 'This should exist; this is something I want to read.

We believe that the best Web content optimization strategy is something as old as journalism itself: the shocking truth and the authentic opinion.

Forget about someone's resume or how they present themselves at a party. Can they blog or not? The blog doesn't lie.

That's always been my test for what makes a story: is this something journalists would gossip with each other about?

It's harder now for journalists to do stories about billionaires, like Peter Thiel, without having at the back of their minds the fear that maybe somebody deep-pocketed, you know, with limited resources is going to come after us and can my organization afford to defend me?

No picture, no footage, no story. The people these days require some visual evidence in order to believe what they read.

I think people are sort of waking up to it now, how probably the biggest change in Internet media isn't the immediacy of it, or the low costs, but the measurability. Which is actually terrifying if you're a traditional journalist, and used to pushing what people ought to like, or what you think they ought to like.

Google demotes search results that don't get clicked on.

Google and others truncate headlines at 70 characters. On the Manti Teo story, Deadspin's scoop fell down the Google search results, overtaken by copycat stories with simpler headlines. Deadspin's headline was 118 characters. Vital information - 'hoax' - was one of the words that was cut off.

Your writers write these pieces about meaningless startups, meaningless apps and meaningless companies.

While I love the medium, I've always been skeptical about the value of blogs as businesses.

Jonah Peretti is one of the smartest web publishers out there. And Buzzfeed is an aggressive and dynamic company.

Ben Smith's quick-hit campaign 'scoops' are about as viral as cat videos. That fits with Buzzfeed.

Superior writers, videographers and other content makers want to work with their own kind and for their own kind.

Henry Blodget does occasionally have a new idea. If you're making a point about aggregation or the emptiness of modern journalism, he's far from the best target. Try Huffpo - or Gawker writers whose souls have been corroded by irony.

An employer would be a complete fool to let an image like college partying influence their hiring decisions.

I have to come to terms with the paternalism of American business. Companies are expected to take on so many social responsibilities which are the province of the state in Europe.

I want to institutionalise and automate chequebook journalism.

Relentless and cynical traffic-trawling is bad for the soul.

Apple makes beautiful products. I own a Mac Pro, a Mac Book, a Mac Mini, an iPad, an iPhone, pretty much the entire collection.

As a print journalist, if you hear a rumour you try to stand it up and if you can't, the story dies. With a blog you can throw the rumour out there and ask for help. You can say: 'We don't know if this is true or not.

Critics say Internet advertising suffers from limitless inventory, which depresses prices. These exclusive front-page sponsorships are not limitless. If HBO doesn't move quickly enough, Showtime can buy out Gawker and Jezebel for the key fall TV season. On any individual day, there isn't room for both of them; and that's healthy.

I don't really mind playing tabloid monster. I always liked those characters in the old movies.

Publishing should be a collaboration between authors and their smartest readers - and at some point the distinction should become meaningless.

Personally, as a print journalist, I always found the most interesting stories to be the ones hacks talked about in the bar after work.

Web media needs to move to TV metaphor - with full-screen imagery and other content interrupted with full-screen ads.