Valleywag, the group gossip blog based out of and dedicated to Silicon Valley, has laid off 60% of its professional blogging staff:We would never sugarcoat someone else's layoffs. Why ours? Gawker
Media, our publisher, has told me to cut Valleywag's costs, in
anticipation of an advertising recession. In response, I have laid off
associate editors Nicholas Carlson and Jackson West and reporter
Melissa Gira Grant. They have all been doing excellent work, breaking
stories and needling Silicon Valley. But our ultimate boss, Nick
Denton, has decided he can't afford them. Paul Boutin and I will
continue running the site.
Annnnd that sucks.
Hit Valleywag to read the memo from Nick Denton, Gawker Media's head honcho.Will other local pro-bloggers be next? How is the Gothamist faring? Could SFist bloggers be next? What about bloggers employed by big media? [Duhn-duhn-duh!]
UPDATE: The Tech Chronicles comments on the recession-based layoffs:Don't expect any tears from some of Valleywag's favorite targets,
Silicon Valley's digerati, whose foibles, excesses and hypocrisies -
real and imagined - are chronicled in exhaustive detail on the Web
site. Layoffs are red meat for Valleywag's reporters, who revel in
ridiculing the executives behind the job cuts and the businesses they
oversee. [more]
UPDATE #2: I've seriously offended someone I have a lot of respect for. For that I am very sorry.
