The Global Media Business Weekly

Bustle buys events company

Bryan Goldberg’s millennial media company Bustle Digital Group (Zoe Report, Elite Daily, Gawker and Romper) is expanding into live events with the acquisition of Flavorpill Media Inc, an online publisher and “experiential brand focused on events”. Terms have not been disclosed. The deal is seen as significant because of the way that other millennial female-targeting media like Refinery29 and PopSugar have pushed into major annual events. Flavorpill will manage the first Bustle Rule Breakers event in New York City next month. The five-year-old Bustle claims a monthly digital audience of almost 80m. Goldberg, who founded one of the world’s largest sports digital brands, the Bleacher Report (sold to Time Warner in 2012) recently made headlines with a winning $1.35m bid for the dormant assets of Gawker, although it is believed that they will be kept separate from Bustle. The acquired assets include the Gawker. com domain, social-media accounts and an archive of almost 200k articles. Gawker has been dormant for two years since being sued into bankruptcy by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who was unhappy about a report he was gay. Six of Gawker’s websites were sold to Univision Communications for $135m in 2016.