Next week, Gawker will call the editor behind the post and other witnesses, that could include founder Nick Denton, at a civil trial in St. Petersburg, Florida, near Hogan's home. It also may show the tape to the jury.
Gawker's one-minute, 41-second edited excerpt shows Hogan having consensual sex with the wife of his then best friend, radio "shock jock" personality Bubba the Love Sponge.
The 62-year-old former professional wrestler, whose legal name is Terry Bollea, told jurors he still suffers from the humiliation of the sex tape's posting in 2012. Hogan said he did not know the encounter was recorded when it took place five years earlier in Bubba's home.
Asset valuation expert Jeff Anderson said that between Oct. 2012 and April 2013, when the video was removed, Gawker's value, as measured by the number of readers who visited its website, climbed by $54 million. On its own, the Hogan sex tape accounted for 28 percent of that increase, he said.
"It's those provocative stories, such as an exclusive celebrity sex tape…that can drive value," Anderson said. "As I think Mr. Daulerio even said, this wasn't just boobs," he said, referring to A.J. Daulerio, the former Gawker.com editor who posted the video.
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| Bubba Clem with then-wife Heather |
The Tampa Bay Times reports listening to Anderson's testimony, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton shook his head at the assertion that in 2012, the company was worth $232 million. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, is demanding $100 million in damages.
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Attorneys for Gawker disputed Anderson's figures, calling them artificially inflated and the result of a methodology that was out-of-date.
According to them, in 2012, Gawker.com received 678 million page views, of which the Hogan sex tape accounted for less than one percent. The website's writers published some 10,000 posts that year, and while the video was popular, it was only one of many such stories, they said. Moreover, in the month after the video was published, Gawker.com's page views actually declined.
Hogan's side on Friday highlighted the video's viral spread, with an expert tallying that it reached millions more than the 2.5 million who saw it on Gawker over six months.
Gawker questioned another expert's presentation that it saw a boost from the post that added $5 to $15 million in value to the company.
"Where exactly is this Hulk effect?" said Heather Dietrick, president and general counsel of the company.
Testimony this week ranged from journalism ethics and website analytics to Hogan's statements about his penis size.
Hogan, a leading wrestling figure in the 1980s and '90s, emphasized a distinction he drew between his true personality and the bombastic persona he used professionally with "artistic liberty."
The Hogan side questioned Gawker's approach to sexual content. In a taped video deposition, former editor A.J. Daulerio called celebrity sex tapes newsworthy unless involving a child. When pressed on an age, he drew the line at under four.
Gawker later called the age reference a "flip" response.
On Friday, attorneys for Hogan read some of Daulerio's emails regarding a woman seeking the removal of a video showing her having sex in a public bathroom. He wrote: "Blah, blah, blah."
Gawker later noted that those comments were not sent to the woman.
Hogan attorney David Houston called "disgusting" how Gawker claimed speech protections under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"This is a case of pandering to the very basest of human curiosity," he told Reuters, expecting a favorable verdict to demonstrate "there is still privacy in the modern world."
(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by David Gregorio)
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