Elizabeth Spiers Leaves Dead Horse Media
Posted by: Jon Fine on April 19, 2007
Elizabeth Spiers is leaving Dead Horse Media, the blog network she co-founded last year. Dead Horse runs the niche sites DealBreaker, AboveTheLaw, and Fashionista.
“I want to do more sites, some of which are experimental (and not blog-related) and [Dead Horse’s investors] want to just focus on improving and expanding DealBreaker, Fashionista and AboveTheLaw,” wrote Spiers in response to an email inquiry. “ It’s a reasonable position, but not one I agree with.” Spiers had essentially left the company entirely as of today.
Dead Horse also ran Supermogul.com, but that site is on hiatus as the company mulls its future. Typing in its address now directs Web surfers to DealBreaker, and the former editor of Supermogul will now work for DealBreaker.
Spiers, a native of Wetumpka, Al., is well-known in Manhattan media circles. She was the founding editor of Gawker.com, and as such did much to codify the style and sensibility of a certain kind of blog. (A sensibility that may be traced back to old-media forebears like Spy magazine, it’s true, but one that’s nonetheless proved quite influential.)She also was editor in chief of mediabistro.com, the CEO and majority owner of which—full disclosure—is my wife Laurel Touby.
Spiers, who also had a stint at New York magazine, started Dead Horse in early 2006.
Justin Smith, an investor in Dead Horse and President of Dennis Publishing’s The Week, declined to comment.
UPDATE 4/20: Mediabistro’s Dylan Stableford (see previous disclosure) wisely points out that a recent lawsuit against DealBreaker might have had something to do with all this.
