NY Observer > Gawker

Denton Shuffles Deck: Hires Snyder as M.E. of Gawker; Moe Tkacik Let Go

John Koblin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:47:47 -0400

And here's the news that'll boomerang all over the Web logs today.

As has been speculated, Gabriel Snyder, most recently of W and formerly of The Observer, will be replace Nick Denton as Gawker's managing editor.

Gawker is also letting go 19 employees. We also hear that Moe Tkacik, who was brought to Gawker from Jezebel after she nearly left for Radar, is among those being let go.

Mr. Denton's memo after the jump: read more »

Times Web Team Has Soft Spot for Gawker

John Koblin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:20:06 -0400

Last night, nytimes.com played live video of the Biden-Palin debate on its home page, and Jon Landman is quite impressed that the Times pulled this off—he's also quite pleased that Gawker liked it, too. From his weekly memo:

Live, streaming video at the top of the homepage! If you doubt this is a significant achievement, we invite you to survey the Web sites of broadcast news organizations like CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC (and we could go on). They had live debate video, yes, via links. But not on their homepages. read more »

With Help of Monster, Denton's Gawker Thumps Stanton's LATimes.com

John Koblin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:21:31 -0400

Since The Los Angeles Times decided to lay off 135 people—100+ people for the second time this year—its PR brass has been trying to distract the media with other, happier news. Yesterday, with a nice link from Romenesko, the Times announced that it had its biggest Web-traffic month ever with 127 million page views in July.

Every piece of publicity that comes out of the paper is issued from Russ Stanton, the paper's editor of six months, who had previously been in charge of latimes.com. Naturally, a lot of it will be latimes.com-related (if it's not about traffic, the news is always about new blogs). read more »

Moe Tkacik Off the Radar

John Koblin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:22:32 -0400

That news about Moe Tkacik joining Radar? Never mind.

Apparently, Ms. Tkacik has changed her mind and rejected the offer from Radar. She'll leave Jezebel and begin writing for her company's flagship site, Gawker.com.

Reached by Media Mob, Radar editor Maer Roshan, who is currently not in the office, told us that the memo he sent out to the Radar staff announcing she was hired—writing that she will "bring her unique style and voice to a wide variety of topics from entertainment to politics, business and economy to world affairs. I'm confident that her strong reporting experience and her uncanny ability to analyze trends and events will allow the site to offer a broader perspective on pop, politics, scandal, and style"—was "probably" premature and claimed that it was not actually written by him, but his assistant. read more »

Writer Puts the 'I!' in Russia!

Matt Haber — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:30:05 -0400

Media Mob just received the Summer 2008 issue of Russia!, the premier glossy for hip, young people of Russian descent. The cover features a striking drawing of newly installed Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, whose eyes seem to follow you across the room. Russia! editor Michael Idov penned the accompanying story, Meet the New Boss.

For the subset of people still fascinated by the personal life of former Gawker editor Emily Gould, her story on young Russian novelists—including, as her former website gleefully pointed out her ex-boyfriend, novelist Keith Gessen—is given a seven-page spread and the great headline, The Beet Generation. read more »

The Times Magazine Dapples Sunlight On Its Memoirist

John Koblin — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:05:45 -0400

This past winter, Paul Tough, a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, brought Emily Gould, a recently retired editor of Gawker.com, to the sixth floor of the paper’s skyscraper on Eighth Avenue. Sometimes, writers meet with the magazine’s editor in chief, Gerry Marzorati, and this was one of those times.

Mr. Marzorati had never before heard of Ms. Gould, he told Off the Record. read more »

New York Times Magazine Blog Article Tears Media Blogosphere Asunder

Matt Haber — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:04:24 -0400

Emily Gould's New York Times Magazine cover story hasn't even landed with a thud on front porches and newsstands yet, but it's already garnering a ton of criticism online.

Some of the critical outlets weren't surprising.

Like Gawker, for example, since Ms. Gould's article is in many ways a rebuke of the site.

Gawker's first post officially linked to Ms. Gould's Times Magazine story received 9,133 views and 170 comments.

A follow-up post clocked in at 8,814 views with 149 comments, while a post announcing comments had closed on NYTimes.com received only 4,150 views and 83 comments.

Sadly, another, about the article's photos, topped out at only 2,556 views and 55 comments.

Finally, it seemed, for Gawker, the horse had been kicked to death.

New York magazine's Daily Intel had a wonkishly incisive post in which its editors calculated how many dollars Ms. Gould was presumed to have been paid for the words "I" and "me" in the 7,937-word article. (Eight hundred and sixty dollars, by Daily Intel's math. One wonders how many I's and me's were in New York's equally controversial first person cover story this week.) read more »

Gawker's New Elizabeth Street Home

John Koblin — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:48:56 -0400

Gawker has a new home at 210 Elizabeth Street, and it's on the fourth floor! Sheila McClear is a big fan of the new place, which includes a telephone booth—Gawker's very own crying room.

Maggie Shnayerson Out at Gawker

John Koblin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:38:23 -0500

Gawker media reporter Maggie Shnayerson was laid off last night. Nick Denton, managing editor of the site and owner of parent company Gawker Media, confirmed the break-up.

"He basically said page views were not meeting his expectations for the site," Shnayerson later said, when we contacted her about the split.

She said she was told about the firing via an email that arrived last night; Shnayerson was as of today the longest-serving editor presently appearing on Gawker's masthead; she's been working there since September. read more »

Gawker's Sheila McClear Shopping Peep Show Memoirs to Agents

Leon Neyfakh — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:11:26 -0500

Sheila McClear, who covers the publishing industry for Gawker.com, is shopping a memoir about her time spent working in Times Square as a peep show girl.

The 26-year-old, who started as a reporter at Gawker in September, said she worked as a peep show girl for a brief period when she first moved to New York a little less than two years ago.

"I got interested in it -- obviously, it's a fascinating and weird milieu—and my book is about that experience!" Ms. McClear said, via instant message (the preferred mode of communication in Nick Denton's universe).

Ms. McClear said the book is called Every Day I Know Less and Less: Postcards From the New Times Square. Though she does not yet have an agent, she is working on the book actively, having recently completed a full-scale rewrite.

Ron Hogan over at the publishing blog GalleyCat reported earlier this afternoon that a Gawker editor was shopping a memoir.