Denton […] proudly points to huge spikes in traffic to his Web sites as a result of them. He says that Gawker has gone from 300,000 visitors per week in 2008 to 1.4 million, in part thanks to scoops it paid for.

Denton argues that paying for a story changes little about the source-journalist relationship, or about the underlying credibility of the information. “All sources [compensated or not] have an agenda, whether it’s bureaucratic rivalry, mischief-making or the mercenary impulse. They always have to be doubted… . I’m content for us to be judged by results.”