Lockhart Steele: 'Sell Yourself, Be Dirty'
"There's tons of crap” on the Web, observes the managing editor of blog publisher Gawker Media. So, "you have to stand out.”
By Tara Saycocie
When Lockhart Steele was asked what advice he would give to young journalists with aspirations of becoming successful bloggers, he replied: “Sell yourself, be dirty.”
The well-kempt managing editor of blog publisher Gawker Media doesn’t look like the type to get too dirty, but he swears up and down by his advice. “You’ve got to put yourself out there,” says Steele, who joined Gawker Media in February. “There’s tons of crap out there. You have to stand out.”
“Blogs tell you the things you want to find in the New York Times but won’t.”
Sitting at the editing helm of 10 highly trafficked blogs—including Wonkette, Defamer and Fleshbot —is a job that makes Steele smile. He speaks with excitement when talking about the future possibilities of blogs.
“It’s information, right then, right there,” says Steele. “Blogs tell you the things you want to find in the New York Times but won’t.”
Steele says that he admires the honesty of blogging and the notion that most blog entries do not undergo a rigorous editing process. However, he doesn’t forget the important role that the mainstream media play in the blogging universe. “If there wasn’t the New York Times to make fun of, Gawker would not exist,” he admits.
Steele, a former editorial staffer with Cottages and Gardens magazine, entered the blogging world in 2001 with his self-titled lockhartsteele.com, where he mostly posted comments about his Lower East Side neighborhood. Eventually, he launched Curbed, which quickly became a popular blog about real estate development in New York City.
Curbed helped Steele make a name for himself in the blogging community. He was asked to join Gawker in the fall of 2004. “Basically, I just make sure that the Gawker Media bloggers get out of bed in the morning,” Steele says of his duties.
Steele’s title of managing editor may be a little misleading, as he does not actually edit the posts in Gawker Media’s blogs. While he does read each Gawker blog every day, the individual blog writers are responsible for editorial decisions concerning their work, he says.
Steele aims to build a strong writing staff for Gawker Media’s blogs. He believes that most blog entries should be short and concise. Therefore, it is important for the writer to quickly catch the reader’s attention and get the point across, he says.
Steele encourages his staff, as well as other bloggers, to strongly state their point of view in their blogs.
In blogs, all of the writer’s biases are on table, says Steele. “Obviously, if one person is writing it, it’s going to be opinionated. And people like reading other people’s opinions.”