Gawker CEO Nick Denton told his editorial staff on Thursday that the site will be "20 percent" nicer when it relaunches on Monday.
Denton met with his staff at a bar in Brooklyn to tell them that the site needed to soften its image somewhat, first suggesting 20 percent, which he later reduced to "10 to 15 percent", according to The International Business Times.
This new mandate comes after Gawker came under fire last week, when the site published a story reporting that David Geithner, CFO of magazine company Condé Nast, had solicited sex from a gay porn actor. The story was later taken down by Denton after a vote was held consisting primarily of non-editorial management - an action that caused two editors, Max Read and Tommy Craggs, to resign, according to The Wrap.
Following their resignation and outrage from editorial staff, Denton said that if anyone was unhappy with the direction that Gawker will be taking, they could quit next week and collect full severance pay - a reiteration of what he said after Read and Craggs quit earlier in the week, according to Capital New York.
"To any that resign over the deep-sixing of [the story in question], and to any that find a gentler editorial mission too limiting: I respect the strength of your convictions. This is a decision you're taking to preserve principles you believed I still shared. And since you were abiding by a policy we had not formally superseded, we will treat all resignations as being constructive dismissal, subject to severance," he said.
The Gawker.com relaunch and offer of severance to employees coincides with the company's move into a new office on 114 Fifth Ave. in Union Square, which is scheduled to take place early next week.
