{"id":3892,"date":"2018-07-11T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/?post_type=customer-spotlight&p=3892"},"modified":"2025-05-06T19:40:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:40:44","slug":"gawker-for-good","status":"publish","type":"customer-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/gawker-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"DreamHost Customer Kevin Lee Hopes to Bring Goodness to Gawker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salacious news, Hollywood gossip, and high-impact scandal: Gawker, a now-defunct blog with a reputation that would\n make Taylor Swift blush, wasn\u2019t necessarily known for doing good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But DreamHost customer Kevin Lee and his digital marketing agency hope to change its rep with a purchase of Gawker Media\u2019s asset this week<\/a>. The goal: turn a media\n bad boy into a site with a soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appropriately, he\u2019s dubbed it Gawker for Good<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee is the executive chairman and founder of Didit<\/a>, a full-service digital media agency which boasts clients like Foot Locker and\n Stamps.com. When he learned about the auction taking place for Gawker\u2019s assets, he decided to make a bid with his\n company, mostly on a whim. Now he\u2019s the auction\u2019s \u201cstalking horse bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been active on all sides of the digital marketing ecosystem,\u201d he says. \u201cLast September, I came up with this\n idea that when people consume content, half of their ad revenue from consuming that content could go to their favorite\n non-profit cause. I had this inkling that a lot of the folks who were covered by Gawker in the tech community may like\n this as the next chapter for Gawker, better than whatever some other buyer might want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Content for a Cause: How Does It Work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lee\u2019s vision for the site is a true 180-degree reversal from the site\u2019s previously notorious operation: swapping the\n salacious for the altruistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Didit\u2019s undertaking offers is really the first publishing model of its kind, operating from a technology\n invention standpoint: a \u201cCause Marketing Powered Publishing Platform,\u201d which targets philanthropically-minded\n celebs (the Hollywood music and film crowds as well as sports stars) as co-creators of site content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u201cdonated\u201d content then earns ad revenue \u2014 25 percent of which is given to the celebrities\u2019 \u2014 or the\n reader\u2019s \u2014 chosen charities. By leveraging social followings and engagement from the celebs, nonprofits, and readers,\n Lee expects audience readership to grow organically without burdensome content-creation costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis will be a cool way for celebrities to tell their fans to do something that doesn\u2019t require them to give\n money,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThey could send them over to the content that was created. It wouldn\u2019t be a material number\n from just one content consumption visit, but over time, with more and more fans engaging with it, it would really\n become material.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lee has also been pioneering a new fundraising method, a cryptocurrency crowdfund. To create his bid reserve, he has\n appealed to those early cryptocurrency adopters who are sitting on extra bitcoin and interested in sharing their\n wealth for a good cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumption for a cause \u2014 it\u2019s especially novel when considering the number of hours people already spend shopping\n online, scrolling social media, or perusing the latest virtual gossip rags (in the US, it\u2019s reached 12 hours<\/a> a day!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll leave it to the other celebrity publications to cover the DUIs, the cheating spouses, and who\u2019s in rehab,\u201d Lee\n says. \u201cThat stuff is gonna get covered, but the idea that is that this site is used for charitable purposes. This\n could be a very similar type of content to what\u2019s being covered in People<\/em> magazine or on\n Entertainment Tonight, but it wouldn\u2019t be the negative stuff. It would be hopefully something exclusive that a star\n would be willing to share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gawker for Good, as Lee sees it, allows people to consume engaging content without the guilt. Sounds ideal, right?\n Plus, goodness-focused content offers a respite from polarizing political news or discouraging current events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe convert news into good news, just because of the nature of the goodness that comes out of it,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What\u2019s DreamHost\u2019s Role In All of This?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lee has operated within the digital sphere for 24 years, 13 of which he\u2019s shared with DreamHost. It\u2019s the brand\u2019s\n value that keeps him loyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe level of service is high, and what you get for your buck is good. A combination of high service and bang for the\n buck is a win-win,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Lee is utilizing DreamPress<\/a>, an upgrade from his previous\n shared hosting plan, to gear up for the possibility of increased spotlight and media attention on his site as the\n auction nears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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