Maybe people wonder what the point/relevance is?

Is it that Gawker had lots of ads, so Kotaku would also have ads?

What's relevant (to this thread) about Thiel killing it?

I guess I didn't phrase it well- after Thiel killed Gawker, it and all it's affiliated sites (like Kotaku) were sold off for parts and their images were replaced by ads by the new owners, who may have kept the lights on but farmed all the content with a ton of ads.