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owen+thomas

Valleywag Folded into Gawker.com

by Brian Solis on November 13, 2008

by Brian Solis

Paul Boutin and Owen Thomas, a sad kiss goodbye!

Yesterday, good friend Owen Thomas, editor of Silicon Valley gossip site, and division of Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, published a bombshell that he was to transition to the role of Silicon Valley Gossip Columnist at Gawker.

In the post Owen shared, “In the wake of his apocalyptic predictions for the online-advertising market, Nick Denton, the owner of Valleywag publisher Gawker Media, read my offhand quip about how I would soon be writing Valleywag as a column for Gizmodo or Gawker, whichever will take me, as a brilliant business suggestion, and he’s taking me up on the idea…Nick, I was joking, but if you really think I have such keen insight into how to manage your Web properties, why not make me a strategic consultant to Gawker Media instead — and give me a hefty raise while you’re at it?”

Today, my friend Paul Boutin published an FAQ that shed additional light on the news.

Here’s what Boutin had to say:

- Some guy named Denton can’t figure out how to sell ads on Valleywag.
- So he’s going to sneak Valleywag onto Gawker.com, where Ketel One is happy to buy banners.
- Valleywag.com the URL will still work.
- In 2009, Owen will be posting full-time, maybe 6-12 posts per day. Everyone else is fired.
- Denton’s trying to follow Wired’s footsteps: Take an insidery, localized publication and make it a national daily read. Will it work? Maybe. Will Chris Tolles still reload obsessively? That’s the challenge.
- Valleywag’s traffic isn’t enough to pay for two writers, even with Ketel One ads on every page. Denton’s keeping Owen instead of me, because Owen likes to write about boring money issues that, in theory, Chris Tolles thinks are way more important than photos of Steve Jobs parked in a handicapped space.
- I’m here until December 1. Owen gets his Thanksgiving vacation. I get an extra month’s rent.
- TechCrunch gets to pretend we don’t exist, which makes them look like a bunch of five-year-olds. Everybody wins!
- You’re worried about me? I owe the New York Times one short freelance article, that’s all I feel comfortable saying.

Best wishes Owen and Paul. I publish this photo montage for you…