Last night, Gawker Media held its first real company-wide meeting at the Crosby Hotel screening room, down in the hotel's swank basement. Honcho Nick Denton gave a speech from the stage—just like a real grown-up company, and also totally not.

"His pep talk amounted to showing a chart of upward linear growth and telling us it wasn't good enough," said one employee. "But what do you expect from Nick—is he going to go around and rub everybody's shoulders?"

No. He is not. Denton should feel good that he came off as a real hardass. Everyone knows where they stand now: grow (more!) or get out. And another principle he [...]