Nick Denton's statement makes it clear that this is just "round 1"

Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly witheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trial had we been allowed to present the full case to the jury. That's why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately.

Several Gawker writers were seen tweeting similar "we will win on appeal" thoughts on Friday before the lawyers had even made their final statements. From that we can deduce that the trial was likely discussed internally, and the outcome of this trial was not a surprise to Gawker at all.