By: Sydney Ember
The website Jezebel announced on Tuesday that Koa Beck, a former executive editor at Vogue.com, will be its new top editor.
Ms. Beck, 30, who also served as a senior features editor at MarieClaire.com and has written for publications including The Atlantic, The Observer and The Guardian, is replacing Emma Carmichael, who said in June that she was stepping down after three years leading the site.
Founded in 2007 as part of Gawker Media, Jezebel soon established itself as a leader in publishing feminist commentary and articles focused on issues that affect women. With its sharp — at times cutting — tone, Jezebel fostered discussions about gender, sexism and power that have since become a larger part of the mainstream conversation, most recently in light of the allegations of sexual harassment involving the ousted Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and the former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
For example, after it was revealed on Tuesday that Condé Nast had barred the celebrity fashion photographer Terry Richardson from working with its magazines after years of accusations of sexual misconduct, many Twitter users pointed out that Jezebel had published an article about the allegations in 2010.
In a statement, Ms. Beck, who is biracial and married to a woman, said there was “no other outlet” that had spoken to her more than Jezebel after she graduated from Mills College, a women’s college in California.
“There’s no question that Jezebel invented a sort of approach to women’s media that we take for granted,” Susie Banikarim, the editorial director of Gizmodo Media, which includes Jezebel, said in an interview. “Finding an editor for this next iteration of Jezebel,” she added, “was really important to us.”
Like other former Gawker Media properties, Jezebel is now owned by Univision’s Fusion Media Group, which purchased most of Gawker’s sites in an auction last year after the company filed for bankruptcy in the wake of a $140 million judgment in a lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan that had been bankrolled by the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.
Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, is no longer with the company, and Gawker’s portfolio of sites is now under the umbrella of Gizmodo Media. (Univision did not acquire Gawker.com as part of its deal.)
Source: New York Times
