But web traffic is no longer Gawker’s primary metric for judging editorial success. In January, CEO Nick Denton announced that the site would prioritize high-quality editorial content over viral posts that drew large amounts of traffic. Gawker’s bonus system also shifted; writers received bonuses for writing stories that editors judged to be high-quality, rather than for stories that drew the most unique visitors.
Source: As Gawker traffic stalls, writers told to work faster | POLITICO