"The Digital Dirt"

"scandal has been chronicled for millennia. Thirty-five hundred years ago, Mesopotamian scribes used cuneiform to record the impeachment hearings of a mayor who had been accused of corruption, kidnapping, adultery, and the theft of manure. In 1709, the first modern gossip magazine, The Tatler, started publication, in London. The medium arrived in America in the late nineteenth century, when a weekly named Town Topicsbegan publishing blind items, in a section called “Saunterings.” (In 1905, the section’s editor attempted to blackmail Emily Post’s husband after learning of his infidelity.) Tycoons and politicians were the initial focus of the gossip trade; one British photographer bribed a gardener to gain entrance to Winston Churchill’s house, where he hid, waiting for the perfect shot, until Churchill spotted him and chased him away. With the rise of Hollywood, actors became gossip’s prime quarry; the magazine Confidential courted lawsuits by printing stories with titles like “Mae West’s Open Door Policy.”...

In the early aughts, [Howard Levin, founder of TMZ] successfully pitched an idea to Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros.: a weekday newscast dedicated to celebrity court cases. His “mission,” he once said, was “not to make celebrities look bad but to make them real.” To Levin, the O. J. Simpson case offered a glaring example of how differently the law was applied to celebrities and to ordinary citizens...

Jim Paratore, the president of Telepictures, wanted to find Levin another project. Paratore had been contemplating a new Web site that could feature unused footage amassed by “Extra,” also a Telepictures production... But Levin was not interested in managing a site that functioned as “another thing to puff up Hollywood,” Bankoff recalled. Instead, Levin proposed adapting the combative spirit of “Celebrity Justice” to the pace of the Web. “ ‘Urgency’—Harvey used that word all the time,” Jeff Rowe, another former AOL executive, told me. “He wanted a site that created a sense of urgency.”

The site needed a name, and “Feed the Beast,” “Frenzie,” and “Buzz Feed” were all considered, according to Rowe’s notes. Then, one day, a Telepictures executive suggested “Thirty Mile Zone.” It was an old movie-industry phrase, dating back to the mid-twentieth century, which designated the industry’s boundaries in Los Angeles. Levin suggested an abbreviated version: TMZ."

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/inside-harvey-levins-tmz

So this is how it started - the background is surprisingly interesting, as is the impact that the model has had. The founder used to be a lawyer, and his journey towards his current role is so, so 80s.