San Francisco-based tech blog GigaOm, a widely-respected name in the industry for nearly a decade, is shutting down for want of funding, according to its founder.
"Gigaom is winding down and its assets are now controlled by the company’s lenders," Om Malik wrote Monday. "It is not how you want the story of a company you founded to end.
"Business, much like life, is not a movie and not everyone gets to have a story book ending."
GigaOm was founded as a company in 2006 by Malik, who had been running his personal blog under that name for years prior. (A disclaimer: I worked with and edited Om at his previous place of employment, Business 2.0 magazine.)
The site made money from its events, and a premium version of the site that offered specialized research and reports for professionals. Its audience was in the range of 5 million readers every month. GigaOm had snapped up other online media operations, most notably PaidContent in 2012.
Its loss comes just over a month after the announced end of another thoughtful, widely respected blog that began as a one-man operation, The Daily Dish.
The news came as a shock to many in the tight-knit tech journalism community. GigaOm was still very much a going concern; it had added its analysis to the Apple Watch launch as recently as Monday morning. It was tweeting out news stories as recently as ten minutes before word of its closure dropped.
And that word seemed to surprise employees as much as observers, starting with media critic Mathew Ingram and current editor Tom Krazit:
This hurts more than I can say: I was just told Gigaom is shutting down -- it has run out of money. We tried our best, but it wasn't enough.— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) March 10, 2015
I was so proud to lead one of the best groups of tech writers I've ever worked with @gigaom. Sad it all came to an end so fast.— Tom Krazit (@tomkrazit) March 10, 2015
It was the best job with the best team I could have imagined while it lasted, but Gigaom is closing its doors. I love everyone there.— Derrick Harris (@derrickharris) March 10, 2015
Gigaom is shutting down. The site. And the company. But @om built something amazing and it changed my life. I love him and my colleagues.— Stacey Higginbotham (@gigastacey) March 10, 2015
What set @gigaom apart was marriage of digital news approach with highest journalism standards. Credibility, authority, and reporting chops.— Sam Gustin (@samgustin) March 10, 2015
.@om and his team have countless friends and I know every one of us is sad to hear that @gigaom is shutting.— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) March 10, 2015