Yesterday blogger Eliot Wagner emailed me with this news about the blog Gowanus Lounge, the late great blog run by the late great Robert Guskind.
I just got a tweet from “Gowanus Lounge.” It used to belong to whoever was keeping the GL archives. But I followed the link in the tweet and there is a new Gowanus Lounge blog, with a new logo, at www.gowanuslounge.com without any of Bob Guskin’s old blog there. A check of WHOIS merely shows the hosting company.
Later in the day, Wagner figured out what was going on with the help of Ben Musessig of Gothamist:
Less than a year after the death of blogger Bob Guskind, someone has apparently acquired his acclaimed Gowanus Lounge website and changed its focus. Sources close to the deal told Gothamist that Guskind’s wife was approached by a company interested in paying $7,500 to purchase the domain where the journalist once detailed Brooklyn development and neighborhood minutia…
Turns out that Miss Heather of NY Shitty is the person who now owns Gowanus Lounge. The following is a post from NY Shitty about the sale of Gowanus Lounge to a new owner. I was mistaken. The new owner is not Miss Heather of NY Shitty. Sorry for the mistake.
I have a creeping suspicion who the aforementioned “source” is. It is none other than yours truly. It is in the interest of staving off even more speculation that I am writing this post. Last December my husband, who is the admin for the Gowanus Lounge, was contacted by a gentleman who was interested in purchasing the site: url, content, everything. My husband forwarded this offer to Bob’s widow, Olivia, as it is her property.
After much discussion, soliciting of advice and tough choices a compromise was reached: the url would be sold, but Bob’s work would be migrated to a different site: www.bobguskind.com. This has been done. I will not disclose what was paid for the Gowanus Lounge’s url. This is because it nobody’s business but Olivia’s and the purchaser’s. I will point out, however, that Olivia offered my husband and I a portion of the proceeds as way of saying “thanks”. We turned it down. As far as we are concerned it was the least we could do for a good friend. I hope this clears up any confusion. — Miss Heather
As it has been noted here and on my site: I did NOT own this url. In fact, I would even say I did not “broker” the sale of http://www.gowanuslounge.com. My husband and I simply passed along the inquiry to its rightful owner, Olivia and provided her moral/logistical support while she mulled over the offer. When she elected to sell the url we made the transition and ensured that Bob’s content would be preserved as a living memory to his hard work. To this end we set up http://www.bobguskind.com.
Had you bothered to actually read my post…
1. You would have noted we were not— to repeat— the owners of http://www.gowanuslounge.com. We were its custodians.
2. We did not get ONE PENNY from this transaction. We were offered a rather handsome sum as a show of gratitude from Olivia. While we appreciated the gesture, we turned it down. It was the least we could do for a good friend. One a related note, I find your assertion that I own Gowanus Lounge in its current state or otherwise insulting.
3. We are the custodians of bobguskind.com. Although we technically OWN the url we consider it to be Olivia’s property as well.
Please, in the interest of some maintaining semblance of journalistic professionalism (that being your own), update your post to reflect what really happened, not what you have clearly culled from second-hand, third-hand and— speaking as someone in the know— INCORRECT, sources.
Miss Heather
Can you even read? Miss Heather’s blog clearly said that she never owned it nor did she purchase it. What a totally stupid post.
Heather didn’t buy the domain — she helped broker the sale. The new owner’s identity has not been revealed, but suffice it to say, the new “Gowanus Lounge” doesn’t hold a candle to the original.
All content and the url gowanuslounge.com was owned by Bob’s widow. She sold the url gowanuslounge.com to another company. This was her decision to make. The content is still owned by Bob’s widow but has been moved to bobguskind.com. The url gowanuslounge.com is now owned by a third party and has no connection to any of the work that Bob did.
Bobguskind.com will remain as a memorial to Bob and as a archive of all work that he did in gowanuslounge. At no time has anybody but Bob’s widow owned anything related to Bob’s work. Keeping the site up and the content available has always been something that his friends did out of respect. The content will now reside at bobguskind.com for the same reason.
It seems to me that Miss Heather does _not_ own GowanusLounge.com, although there may be some connection to the old content. I’m still confused!