Mike Cernovich refused to confirm Tuesday a report in Vanity Fair that said he had submitted an official bid to purchase Gawker, but he freely speculated that if he did ever end up acquiring the site, money wouldn’t be an issue.
The controversial pro-Trump journalist said he could be profitable just from selling his own products to readers.
“There’s tremendous SEO value in Gawker. I know how to sell books,” Cernovich told TheWrap, referring to his self-published lifestyle manual Gorilla Mindset. “With the SEO value of Gawker, I could sell anything, including Gorilla Mindset books. I would self-monetize. The way Alex Jones does it.”
He also floated the idea of selling his own performance-enhancing brand of nootropic drugs.
Selling products to compliment content is a strategy increasingly employed by right-wing media organizations. In addition to Jones, the Breitbart store sells hats, mugs and T-shirts, and you can buy these wines courtesy of the Daily Caller “Foundation.”
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair reported that Cernovich had submitted a $500,000 bid to Gawker administrator William Holden. A copy of the offer letter and a pitch deck with details of the inquiry were obtained by the website.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed to TheWrap that the Cernovich bid was real.
In its previous incarnation, Gawker had been highly critical of Cernovich. In 2014, the website and writer Sam Biddle blasted him as a “D-List Right-Winger” and his followers a “loser army.”
Cernovich said he had not been a fan of how Gawker “punched down” — citing the famous case of Justine Sacco. The website led one of the most famous internet mobs against the public relations executive after she joked about AIDS and Africa.
“There’s a market demand for a new Vice or a new Gawker that just called out everybody,” he said.
Despite the serious offer, Cernovich faces stiff competition for the website, not least of which comes from PayPal and Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel infamously funded the lawsuit which bankrupted the company in 2016. Thiel’s move to purchase Gawker has met with resistance from former employees.
Cernovich said he was not fan of what Thiel had done.
“I certainly don’t support billionaires bankrupting media organizations,” he said. “”Even if you don’t like the people involved that sets a dangerous precedent.”