Weird, I didn't realize it was April already!

Aww :'(
Please find a new home for this biting puppy.
[White House maybe?]

Will we have to show a receipt on the way out?

Does Gawker have the code in place to determine how many click-forwards from a Consumerist to a money site actually result in ad revenue or click-throughs?

Irony at it's best. You would figure a company blogging about the downturn would be able to keep THE blog about how it affects our consumerism habits in the green.

First they reduced the staff and now they are selling it! Well, let's just hope the next person/company to buy it treats the Consumerist better.

Please, for the love of FSM. When you pack everything up, remember to use only the correct number of appropriately sized boxes.

But I like this site. *sigh* This is such a valid site. It's so worthwhile. What else does Gawker do?

Darn spellchecker switched "its" to "it's"!

@Gokuhouse: Pool our money together and run it ourselves

what what what?!?!?!

Internet Conspiracy Theorists: Unite!

1) Consumerist does a story badmouthing the innerworkings of Goldman Sachs

2) Consumerist on the chopping block...

hmmm

Of 18 titles launched at Gawker Media, we've already spun off or shuttered six. Even now, 91% of advertising revenues come from the top six remaining titles. ... It's time to choose which properties make it aboard the lifeboat

So Consumerist is not top 6? Sacre bleu!

somebody better pick this up, i check this site religiously. don't you go dyin' on me!

Gawker's gonna keep the boobies...
Intelligent discourse? Not profitable.

I think i have like a 1000 or so bucks, is that enough?

Arent you supposed to sell when you are peaking? not tanking? The site the last 2 months is nothing like it was for any 2 month period a year ago.

If gawker cant make any money from this site, I doubt anyone else could.

shame!

As much as it might suck, I think breaking with Gawker is the best thing that ever happened to Wonkette. With less corporate oversight, its easier to push the envelope a little bit.

That being said, if you're purchased by Rupert Murdoch, cash out and go live on the beach.

ok everyone... turn off ad-block on the consumerist...

:-/

@InThrees: I'd think at that point it becomes pretty much a function of code that advertisers have on their e-commerce site. That or Gawker spyware. It'd be pretty hard to track a browser that far, but it'd be easy to track a shopper and see where they were referred from.

In fact, I'd guess the latter is already in place and being used by advertisers to determine the return on investment for ad spaces.

In other news, I am glad you all are optimistic. I am too. In the downsizing thread, I opined that Consumerist may be able to work in a non-profit incarnation. Maybe team up with "Nader's Raiders" or something. I don't know the non-profit, NGO scene that well, but I'd expect there's something that could fit. I'm sure somebody who knows that scene better than me could be more informative...(hint hint @ more informed person).

What's fair market value for Consumerist, anyway? Ballpark figure?

weird... the only Gawker Media sites I read are this and Jalopnik. Gawker itself is a preening mess of self-absorbed shit, but I guess that's what sells ads.

unbelievable... this is truly one of the best sites on the web, and in my opinion, the most essential blog in gawker's stable.

I'll buy you guys. One question- can i put it on my credit card? if not, i'll just take out a second mortgage on my condo, either way it's cool.

I just hope whoever buys it ditches the horrible layout and restores it to something actually readable. I stopped going to the site months ago and only use the feeds because Gawker screwed up the design so badly. There's a line between monetizing a site with new ads and a new layout and driving visitors away by screwing everything up, and Gawker crossed it ages ago.

Just hope whoever gets it keeps it dignified

@ext212: I can provide a server :)

Time to go through my blog feeds and dump all the Gawker ones, then. No impressions from me if they're going to drop a valuable public service like Cist.

Why is Cist not making enough money for Gawker? Perhaps because it calls companies on their fraud and other illicit revenue-boosting bullshit? Gee. Concept.

I'm sure they won't be dumping Fleshbot. Sex sells. Fighting corporate greed doesn't. This is not news. We see where Gawker leans, though. I hope Gawker chokes on its own vomit.

@Hastin: <--- shows much proper apostrophe usage love.

@cmcd14: I do too, it's the only gawker site I have bookmarked!

here's hoping wherever you end up is an improvement.

hey, things around here (meaning the gawker media network) are going downhill anyway. case in point is my embedded google ad box on this page:

{

var google_ads = new Array();
var google_ad;

here's hoping your new home doesn't treat you like the bastard stepchild. hey consumer union, get your ass over here & buy a blog that will help increase your exposure & might generate some new c.r. subscribers!

At least when this site sells, I won't have to see anymore of the stupid Jezebel cross-promotion posts.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

I hate my life.

@mac-phisto: We're working to resolve this bug -- thanks for your patience!

Maybe Sears or Circuit City would be willing to buy some ad space?

This is probably my favorite blog, so good luck.

On a pedantic note, I wouldn't call your blogging team "growing".

"We seek a new home where our kickass blogging team can continue to thrive and grow."

The Consumerist (and Ben) were on the news, for christ's sake ... and you're telling me the site isn't popular?

Maybe i'm on the wrong computer ... is this the Internet or the BIZZARO-NET?

No, don't disappear now, now that I finally bothered registering a handle and commenting every so often!

lets all pitch in! too bad that free Corp/LLC offer ended yesterday...

That doesn't speak well to Gawker's business model, if they were surviving on debt alone. What with all the advertisements and CSS-takeovers done for products on their blogs, I figured they'd be doing well. Sorry to hear about that, Ben. I hope it turns out well.

Phah! You're own spinoff company! PoG sounds like a good name to me.

@elocanth: While many gawker blogs have what I'm sure are very profitable ad streams (including regular ads, and the CSS takeovers) the consumerist currently has NO ads - meaning it's not pulling it's own weight - fiscally speaking, that is. It's unfortunate, but I suspect this probably has a lot to do w/ the nature of the site. No one wants to advertise on the site that's gonna call them out on their mistakes, and if the consumerist gave their advertisers a free pass 'cause they are advertisers, then the site would lose credibility.

I wish the entire consumerist team the best of luck going forward. You all do stellar work, and I'm sure you'll all land on your feet, regardless of what happens with the consumerist.

@What The Geek: when I say "no ads" I mean aside from google ads - no one's raking in the cash from adsense.

@Geblah187: There's a big difference between "popular" and "profitable."

@Hastin:

I've been snarky and cynical since they hired people to "monitor" comments and fired the writers. I said very, very early that this place was positioning itself to be sold by reducing its overhead and making the opinions expressed less anti-corporate.

I knew something was up when NO propers came from the ownership when we rose up against the Flagstaff RV seller who tried to back out of the EBay sale. They didn't want that, and they wanted nothing to do with activism.

I'm very disappointed, and I told lots of people about this site. It used to be linked to my own blog. I removed that link a month ago.

I still visit from time-to-time, but notice the number of recycled and only-tangentially related stories reused from the other Gawker websites.

This is very disappointing and I feel like the ownership has betrayed this community.

The Consumeris, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo should all spin off and join forces against Gawker... Only sites worth reading.

Your shuttering the Consumerist and I can't tell the difference between gawker, i09, defamer, valleywag, or jezebel ..... in fact ... can someone please explain the difference between these 5 pop-culture blogs?

@sporesdeezeez: $10,885,440 [dnscoop.com]

@TheDude06: Your mom the last 2 months is nothing like she was a year ago.

@What The Geek: A clever company with an intelligent, clever ad on Consumerist would definitely get a click-through from me.

I'm looking at YOU, Woot!

Consumerist doesn't take ads because it's a consumer-rights related website.

Ever visited another Gawker website? Huge ads all over the place.

Therefore, Consumerist doesn't make lots of money for Gawker and apparently Gawker is putting its resources into sites that are making money.

Congrats Nick. Shooting yourself in the foot with this one.