In 2009, the 24/7 news cycle cranked up to hyperspeeds. Online news and celebrity blogs exploded—it seemed—in inverse proportion to the rate that mainstream outlets were withering away and (in some sad cases) dying out. These are the most popular blogs and sites—as determined by search demand on Yahoo!—for their take on ‘09.
www.tmz.com
Harvey Robert Levin (born September 2, 1951) is an American television producer, lawyer, legal analyst and a celebrity reporter. Levin is a managing editor at TMZ.com, a celebrity news and gossip site launched by Time Warner-AOL in December 2005. He also executive produces and hosts TMZ on TV. He is a frequent guest of the Kevin and Bean show, and CNN’s Larry King Live.
www.drudgereport.com
Matthew Nathan Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is the creator and editor of the Drudge Report, a news aggregation website in the United States. Drudge was unknown before he began the conservative news aggregation site, the Drudge Report.
For many years, he took odd jobs such as night counterman at a 7-Eleven convenience store, telemarketer for Time-Life books, McDonald’s manager, and sales assistant at a New York City grocery store. In 1989, he moved to Los Angeles, where he took up residence in a small Hollywood apartment. He took a job in the gift shop of CBS studios, eventually working his way up to manager. Here, he was apparently privy to some inside gossip, part of the inspiration for founding the Drudge Report. Worried about his son’s aimlessness, Drudge’s father had insisted on buying him a Packard Bell computer in 1994. The Drudge Report began as an e-mail sent out to a few friends.
perezhilton.com
Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. (born March 23, 1978), better known as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger and television personality. His blog, Perezhilton.com (formerly PageSixSixSix.com), is known for posts covering gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities. He is also known for posting tabloid photographs over which he has added his own captions or “doodles.”
On March 11, 2005, within the first six months of Hilton’s blogging career, PageSixSixSix.com was named “Hollywood’s Most-Hated Website” by The Insider, catalyzing an initial surge in its popularity which temporarily crippled its server. Hilton claimed that on July 30, 2007, a seemingly “ordinary day,” Perezhilton.com had over 8.82 million page views in a 24 hour period.
Media Take Out is a blog-style gossip website catering to African Americans. It claims to be “The Most Visited Urban Website in the World” and has an Alexa ranking of 1,497 as of January 28, 2009. The site’s layout is similar to another popular blog, Drudge Report.
The website was founded by Fred Mwangaguhunga, a former corporate lawyer. Mwangaguhunga was born to Ugandan parents in Washington, D.C., is a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, and received two degrees from Columbia University.
Exclusives have been quoted by BET Style, MTV News, the Page Six column of the New York Post, and by popular radio personalities including Wendy Williams, Howard Stern, and Tom Joyner.
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