You've Got to Know When to Fold Them

Posted on November 22, 2005

Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton blogs that Gawker will shutter its gambling blog Oddjack at the end of the month. Denton said the blog never took off like they hoped.

A.J. Daulerio, the editor, is a trooper, and an amusing writer, but the audience was never there. Gawker traffic stats are public, so that's been pretty obvious to anyone who checks the numbers. Gamblers want to gamble; it seems they don't particularly want to read about gambling, however.
So we're closing down Oddjack by the end of the month. We'd rather concentrate our energies on sites such as Deadspin, which have buzz and a growing audience, and new launches, which have equal potential. The moral of the story: it's easy to launch sites; much harder to make them popular.

It will be interesting to see if any other blog publishers remove unproductive blogs over the next six to twelve months or if they will just carry their deadweight around. More information about the closing of Oddjack can be found at Blogebrity, Susan Mernit, Media Bistro and BlogNetworkWatch.com.