Gold Derby Bought by Penske Media Group

Gold Derby was one of the last remaining independent awards sites and now, they announce, no more. They will be owned by Penske media group — who also own Deadline and Variety. This is a huge get for Tom, whose goal was to sell the site to be able to maintain it:

After 15 years of intense jockeying, sprinting and occasional spills, Gold Derby has finally reached an impressive finish line – we’ve been acquired by Penske Media Corporation. That’s the equivalent to winning the Kentucky Derby. Or, better, it’s like winning the Oscar.

So says Tom in his official statement.

It’s tough to run a site on one’s own. Jeff Wells, David Poland, Nathaniel Rogers and I are really the last independents left of those who built it way back when. AwardDaily (then Oscarwatch) was a solo site back when Gold Derby joined the LA Times and remains a solo site today, 16 years after launching back in 1999. Anne Thompson is at the much bigger Indiewire, Kris Tapley was at Hitix but we’re still waiting on news where In Contention will land. Scott Feinberg works at The Hollywood Reporter. Many more awards sites have sprung in our wake like Rope of Silicon, AwardsCircuit and AwardsWatch not to mention scads of others. Awards sites keep coming and going and going and coming and always too soon!

With this sale, Gold Derby can become a thing that can survive beyond Tom’s own participation, which means he can take a break someday, if he wants. It also means he doesn’t have to sweat the ad sales, which is the hardest part of this job without a doubt. He can concentrate more on content without having to hustle up the cash. It’s good news for Tom and Gold Derby and I know he’ll be happy about it. As for us, we’re not sure what the future holds for AwardsDaily. We just know that we’re still here.