<3 gossip? there's a new reddit in town, in heels

Last Thursday we announced our most radical reddit redesign yet: WeHeartGossip.

Dear readers, you'll find that this community is perfect for all of your shameful brain-indulgences. And by that I mean it's full of celebrity gossip; in case the name didn't give it away.

You may notice a few ads around the CondéNet empire for it, but I also designed one specifically for the reddit community. I wonder if advertising can have the same effect as peer pressure...

After flipping the switch, I was asked by Brent Csutoras about why we're moving away from Lipstick (a site we developed back in 2006) and to a new, slightly more pink gossip site.

My response:

“We thought the lipstick brand was too geared toward women and men who wear lipstick. As a man who doesn’t wear lipstick, but is curious about Natalie Portman’s dating habits, I personally wanted a site that was less pigeonholing.

The important thing for us was to create a new vertical that was totally unrelated to the existing Reddit network. Celebrity gossip was about as unrelated as we could get, as you pointed out by the low subscription count.

The goal with WeHeartGossip is to create a standalone site; subscription count isn’t a focus, traffic is. That, and Devendra Banhart — I can’t believe Nat is dating him…"

Nat, I know you're reading this. All I'm asking for is a second chance. I'll leave my lightsaber at home. I promise.