Gawker Media Buys Latino Site Guanabee

Dec. 4, 2012— -- Gawker Media, the online publishing network that's home to popular blogs like Gawker, Gizmodo, and Jezebel, has purchased Guanabee, an English-language site focused on Latino news and culture, for an undisclosed amount. The purchase comes as Gawker founder and CEO Nick Denton seeks to expand Gawker's international influence and, as Business Insider reports, "to accelerate growth in Latin America."

In addition to acquiring Guanabee, Gawker Media is launching a site in Hungary (where much of the company's tech staff is based) and working on a deal to expand its reach in India.

Guanabee's founder, Daniel Mauser, will run Gizmodo en Español, a Spanish-language version of the company's technology-focused site. Gawker and Guanabee have worked together as advertising partners in the past, and Guanabee Media once shared office space at Gawker's New York City HQ.

Guanabee is best known for its humorous, often irreverent take on media and pop culture and for its incredibly loyal readership. On his reasoning for selling the site, Mauser explains that he was intrigued by Gawker's development of its new platform, which came up during discussions with its founder, Nick Denton. "So when he proposed that I help him launch Gizmodo en Español, (Gizmodo is my favorite tech site) and bring Guanabee with me, I could not say no."

Gawker Media is certainly not a bad place to be, with 17.9 million viewers each month. And with Guanabee's help, the company will more easily be able to transition into the Latino space.

"Our goal is to extend Gawker's properties, starting with Gizmodo en Español , to Spanish speakers worldwide," Mauser said in an email. "This includes U.S. Spanish speakers, Latin America, and Spain. As you know, there are about 500 million Spanish speakers globally and it is the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Mandarin."

Gizmodo en Español will be the first Spanish-language site to launch under Gawker's new Kinja discussion platform in January. Guanabee will follow shortly thereafter.

Mauser adds that he will maintain editorial and business control over Guanabee under the new platform. "My role will be on the publishing side of Gawker's Spanish efforts," he said. "This includes overall management and business development of those sites. We are in the process of hiring a managing editor and a writer for Gizmodo en Español."

Disclaimer: The author of this post was once employed by Guanabee