Nik Richie

Nik Richie is best known as the founder and contributing editor of the online gossip and “reality internet” website TheDirty.com. Richie began the site in March 2007 as Dirtyscottsdale.com while living in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the time, Richie was working as a credit card processor but was unhappy with that job, so he began Dirtyscottsdale.com "to chronicle the nightlife of the 'cool kids' in the Arizona town. The content on Dirtyscottsdale.com initially focused on Richie’s personal criticism and lampooning of Scottsdale and its club scene, which he highlighted with “rudely captioned photos of drunk people, of breast jobs gone bad and so-called $30,000 millionaires showing off their cars, apartments and expensive jeans.” The current version of TheDirty.com allows users to upload their own “dirt” which may include news, gossip, photos, videos, or text, and users can comment on posts submitted by others. Richie has described the decision to create Dirtyscottsdale.com “as a joke for me and my buddies. The word spread so quickly it got out of hand.”