ideas

Gawker Media's Biggest Mistakes

Ashley Feinberg · 08/10/16 09:00AM

I’ve had lots of ideas in my time here at Gawker Media, all of them good. I’ve also had countless constructive and fruitful conversations with various editors about my ideas, and I know I’m better for it. However, these same editors have also made mistakes—egregious ones. Fortunately, the advent of the messaging app Slack has allowed for some of these good ideas (and the conversations surrounding them) to be easily found and preserved for posterity. It has also allowed me to pinpoint exactly where this company went wrong.

They Should Only Swim the Fast Way

Alex Pareene and Hamilton Nolan · 08/09/16 02:00PM

Close watchers of the Olympic games will notice that there are swimming medals awarded for four different “strokes.” That’s three strokes too many and we’ll tell you why.

What's The Big Idea? Searching For Meaning at the 'Ideas Festival'

Hamilton Nolan · 05/08/13 10:40AM

Media companies love to wrap themselves (ourselves) in the cloak of "ideas" just as much as advertising firms love to burnish themselves with the patina of "creativity." In both cases, it is self-flattery disguised as public celebration. We the media are not simply engaged in telling you stuff that happens; we are in the more lofty business of propagating ideas. Ideas! Who doesn't love ideas? What sort of ideas? Oh... all types of ideas!

Puppy Bowl Highlights Need for Year-Round Puppy Channel

Louis Peitzman · 02/05/12 04:48PM


For many of us, Super Bowl Sunday is less about the football and more about Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl — now in its eighth adorable year. As an alternative to the sports of it all, The Puppy Bowl is arguably (please don't argue with me on this) the greatest programming decision made by any network, ever. The puppies frolic as an announcer narrates the cuteness. At the end, viewers learn how to adopt the little MVPs. Really, it doesn't get any better.

Let's Let All the Old People Out of Jail

Hamilton Nolan · 01/27/12 12:20PM

Here in America, our jails are full of old people, and it's costing us a ton of money to keep them in there. Huh. Now there is a problem which certainly could not have been foreseen by craven "Law and order" politicians prosecuting a useless "War on Drugs" for the sake of public popularity, nor by the simplistic bloodthirsty voters who repeatedly elected them in order to satisfy a primal hatred of "the other." Anyhow, we have a solution: let the old people out of jail.

A Brief Guide to 'Ideas Man' Newt Gingrich's Latest Brilliant Ideas

Jim Newell · 11/21/11 03:55PM

Newt Gingrich is just a factory of rich, intellectual, stimulating ideas that no one has ever considered before, as Newt Gingrich is the only person who meets the intelligence threshold necessary to conceive him. Gingrich himself has been telling us this for 30 years, and finally — finally — we cretins have agreed to coronate him as president. Sorry, to keep you waiting, sir! Now that we've come to our senses, let's look at some of the impeccable policy ideas perfected each day in the Gingrich Idea Cave that will make it to the Gingrich Administration.

Florida Pol Wants to Bring Back Firing Squads

Lauri Apple · 10/13/11 04:58AM

Republican Florida state Rep. Brad Drake entered a Waffle House and emerged a man with ideas. Bold ideas, about breakfast. But also some ideas on how to kill Florida's death row inmates with firing squads. Regular Florida folks might be tapped to help shoot some of these condemned critters, because government employees shouldn't have all the fun.

How Can Oprah Save Her Crappy Network?

Hamilton Nolan · 07/13/11 12:45PM

When Oprah launched her own network earlier this year, the overarching strategic plan for success was: people love anything with Oprah in it for some reason. And yet the network hasn't worked. What needs to be done?