Last night, Gawker’s Nick Denton was forced to entertain a group of about 30 reporters and editors who are in town for a Wall Street Journal organized digital training program all by himself because his expected co-star, BuzzFeed (BZFD) co-founder Jonah Peretti, was a no-show. On Twitter, Mr. Peretti had a rather interesting explanation for standing up Mr. Denton.
“I didn’t feel like talking to @nicknotned tonight, you really got to be in the mood for that guy,” Mr. Peretti wrote last night.
When we emailed Mr. Peretti to inquire about the event this afternoon, he attributed his absence to a scheduling glitch rather than any distaste for Mr. Denton.
“Nick is great, who wouldn’t want to spend time with him? The event host just made a scheduling mistake and the last minute fix was for us to do the talks on different nights which was the original plan,” Mr. Peretti wrote. “We are scheduling now, not sure if it is set yet. And I was not in the mood for a surprise Lincoln-Douglas debate.”
Guess that makes Mr. Denton and Mr. Peretti the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas of our time? Gawker and Buzzfeed are hardly the Illinois legislature, but we’ll let the comparison slide. Mr. Denton and Mr. Peretti certainly have way more twitter followers than either Lincoln or Douglas.
Mr. Denton ended up with an empty chair and, although he made the inevitable Clint Eastwood comparison, Mr. Peretti had some comforting words for the Gawker mogul.
“Clint Eastwood is a huge movie star, congrats,” he tweeted.
Luckily, Mr. Denton finds himself plenty entertaining. And at least he had WSJ editor Alan Murray to keep him company.
“Alan and I entertained the crowd–rather successfully I thought. Alan at least can handle me!” Mr. Denton emailed us today.
