

20 Million Views for $5K - ryandvm
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s15gizmodo&r=6
Edit: Apparently it was 5 thousand, not 10.
======
cosmicray
Gizmodo, and the entire Gawker network, is geared towards one thing, that
being to generate page hits. Page hits equal ad imprint revenue.

After curiously inspecting the article, I looked at their legal page. They
specifically spell out that any and all legal communications will be disclosed
(even DMCA take down notices).

From what I can see, Gawker wants to stir the pot as hard as possible to
generate the maximum views. Content is relevant only so far as it achieves
that goal. Apple contributes to this goal by its maximum use of secrecy.

~~~
jsm386
Actually they shifted their focus away from sheer page views to unique
visitors: [http://www.businessinsider.com/gawker-switches-to-unique-
num...](http://www.businessinsider.com/gawker-switches-to-unique-numbers-
recruits-new-users-2010-1)

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stevenbrianhall
Technically it cost $5,000 and at least one man's reputation, and possibly his
job.

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pavs
They make at-least $8 CPM for one ad spot.

<http://advertising.gawker.com/rates/>

Also, I remember reading not too long ago that their "authors" gets paid by
page views.

~~~
justinchen
Fantastic ROI. I remember reading about that pay model too.

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rpledge
Ethics and all aside, this was a good deal for Gizmodo (I thought it was $5K
though). More (evily?) genius was demanding a letter from Apple before
returning the prototype to ensure another exclusive.

Of course it Apple unleashes its legal department on them it may turn into a
negative balance really quickly....

~~~
roc
Yes, by discounting any and all consideration of blowback, legal risk and
setting up an expectation amongst sources of getting paid, it was a net
positive.

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vaksel
you are counting only a single day of page views, chances are that one article
will bring in a ton more traffic over the coming days/weeks/months.

i.e. even now gizmodo ranks in #1 position for iphone V4

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jonknee
Denton paid $5,000 and you need to subtract the hits they would get anyway,
but it looks like they made out great.

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maukdaddy
How many page hits to pay for the lawyers to defend disclosure of trade
secrets lawsuits? What about trafficking in stolen goods lawsuits?

They basically sold their soul for such little gain.

~~~
agotterer
I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like they really didn't do anything wrong.
Check out this write up which brings up a number of good points.
[http://www.edibleapple.com/gizmodo-paid-10000-for-lost-
iphon...](http://www.edibleapple.com/gizmodo-paid-10000-for-lost-iphone-4g/)

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wallflower
Short-term profit (page views), long-term possible net loss (denied access to
WWDC, Apple events)

Gizmodo had a problem with CES and Tv-b-Gone

~~~
sandipc
minus potential legal fees?

now that apple legal is involved...

------
zyb09
I really hope Apple never invites them to any press announcement again, sends
them review devices and boycott them as much as possible. Usually I disagree
with Apple's policy a lot (who doesn't?), but what Gizmodo has done was really
cheap and deceitful. No company deserves that kinda treatment.

~~~
jonknee
Other companies get the same treatment all the time, it's only such a big deal
because Steve Jobs runs that campus like they are shielding nuclear secrets.

~~~
itg
they crossed the line with naming the employee.

~~~
inovica
I agree. Whilst Apple knows who he is, and the guy will be under pressure
anyway, I think its very unfair to go to the lengths they have (even saying on
the latest post that it was the guys birthday when he lost it). I hope the
pressure doesn't get to him too much. We all make mistakes

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ryandvm
Edit: Apparently it was five thousand, not ten.

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minouye
Just curious--in situations like this would there ever be a situation where
they run out of ad inventory to serve?

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rgrieselhuber
On a somewhat unrelated note, why do people use Sitemeter over Google
Analytics (honest question)?

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omarchowdhury
well GA is delayed by a day or so in reporting. could be one reason.

~~~
adamhowell
The default is a day, but if you go up and change your date range you can get
it for current day as well.

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reader5000
Tuesday is young, they will still be above baseline.

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chaosmachine
CPM = $0.50

~~~
mrkurt
Which is why content sites can't survive on anything but rich media ads right
now.

~~~
ig1
That's how much they paid for the iphone, not how much income they made. As
someone pointed out elsewhere in the thread they sell ads for $8 CPM so they
probably made around $160,000 from it.

~~~
mrkurt
My point was really that if a giant grand slam still costs $.50/cpm, it's
awfully hard to sustainably produce content with something like AdSense.

And yeah, they sell ads for $8/cpm, but by about 1 million pageviews on that
article they were showing either no ads or house ads, meaning they weren't
even making money at that point.

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milkshakes
Oh, it will cost a lot more once they factor in the legal fees. Unless they
want to become the next ThinkSecret...

