Gawker Media, Inc. was not the first online outlet to unionize, but it was certainly the most public. When employees first very visibly announced their union drive, they made clear that they wanted to inspire others, in online media and beyond, to organize, too.

In the year since employees unionized, Gawker Media — which included its flagship site Gawker; Gizmodo, Deadspin, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker, and Jalopnik — was very publicly bankrupted by a lawsuit financed by PayPal founder Peter Thiel. The company was put up for auction, and after media giant Univision bought it, many assumed Gawker was dead.

“The bankruptcy and the lawsuit were the end of Gawker as we knew it,” predicted one observer. “When you get into bigger and bigger companies, they impose more rules. They have to. They’re held more accountable for their actions.”