Jesse Oxfeld

Recently, a contretemps between former Gawker editors Jesse Oxfeld and Elizabeth Spiers got a bit out of control. So many former and guest editors! So hard to keep track of their various squabbles and quibbles! Well, until now.... The Gawker Media Buddy List (with apologies to Slate).

In this week's New York magazine, Jesse Oxfeld, that mag's newest hire and a former Gawker editor, expressed his thoughts about Gawker's most infamous feature, Gawker Stalker, in which the sightings of celebrities are reported:

"The shtick of being a New Yorker is that we don't care about celebrities," says Jesse Oxfeld, who was co-editor of Gawker at the time of the controversy but has since parted ways with the site (and subsequently joined New York). "And this entirely belied that. So it offended me a little bit. Because Gawker is supposed to embody a certain Ur-New Yorkerness, which means not being impressed by celebrities. Or, at least, being impressed but knowing enough not to seem impressed."

Elizabeth Spiers, who pioneered Gawker Stalker as the founding editor of Gawker, had this to say via IM today. "The point of Gawker stalker *was* not being impressed by the celebrities. The irony was subtle, but I'm fairly certain it was obvious. (That Jesse interpreted it that way may be indicative of why he wasn't a good fit for Gawker.)"

(Disclosure: Everyone everywhere, including this blogger, has worked with or after or before everyone else at all of the same places for the same millionaires.)

"That sounds bitchier than it is," Ms. Spiers noted; she went on to say that Mr. Oxfeld's sensibility works well in analytical pieces about the newspaper industry.  read more »

Former Gawker editor Jesse Oxfeld will soon head to New York magazine. He will be a senior editor for the magazine's website. Oxfeld confirmed that his start date is August 7.

"I'm hugely excited for it," said Oxfeld by phone today. "That's not spin or a line. It's a magazine that I've always wanted to work for."

"I've known a lot of folks at New York magazine for a long time," he said. "In fact, I was at July 4th fireworks at a New York staffer's place. That's where I met Ben Williams, who is running their web project."

Oxfeld follows, in a way, the path of Gawker's first editor, Elizabeth Spiers, who left that website to work at New York. But she has also followed him! Spiers later moved to Mediabistro.com, to fill a position identical to one formerly held by —wait for it— Oxfeld. Spiers has since moved on to found her own weblog company.

At Mediabistro, Jesse Oxfeld was the editor-in-chief of online media. He left that job for Editor & Publisher; in September, 2004, he told Gawker that "I hate change, so this is kind of sad, but it's a great opportunity."

Since his sudden and unexpected departure from Gawker Media a few weeks ago, Oxfeld has been working part time at Us Weekly; yesterday, he was working in the Wenner Media offices.

"I'm sad to give up my mid-afternoon naps," he said, of taking full-time office work, "but health and dental is a fair trade-off."

—Michael Calderone