The interesting news on the internets today (or at least the parts I pay attention to) is that Wonkette has been spun off from parent Gawker Media along with two other Nick Denton properties (Idolatar and Gridskipper). Wonkette will be owned by current editor Ken Layne in some sort of partnership with Blogads.
Despite certainly being in Wonkette’s target demographic I pretty rarely, if ever, visit/read the site. Some of the LNS stuff is amusing but other then that I’ve never found it particularly useful. I actually enjoy Gridskipper’s DC posts significantly more (I’ve never been to, or heard of, Idolator until today). In a internal memo Denton says this sale is because of slow ad sales but I’ll echo commentator josh at Fimoculous in that it seems odd for Denton to get rid of one of his flagship sites that deals in politics during a presidential election year.
Here’s Wonkette’s post on the move, here’s Gawker’s and here’s Politco’s coverage.Silicon Alley Insider has more analysis.
Wonkette, one of the best/most popular political blogs out there, has it’s own job board. Not that many options but still interesting for anyone looking for a DC-type job.
Mark Halperin, former writer of ABC New’s The Note, is moving to Time. The Note has always been one of those things that I read only when I wanted to be reminded of how much I dislike Washington establishment media types, so its no great loss to me. Wonkette sums things up in the style that only he can:
Eventually Halperin lost his mind and started pretending that things like the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina and congressional Republicans intervening in the Terri Shiavo case were brilliant political moves made with great wisdom that would reveal itself over time. Then he started hawking his book, Only I and I Alone (and Karl Rove) Know How Elections Can Be Won Anymore, Please Buy My Book Please Please Please PS Hey Drudge Please Plug This Please Please Please by MARK HALPERIN and John Harris, and embarrassed himself repeatedly in venues like the Hugh Hewitt show, losing the respect of pretty much everyone paying attention with his shamelessness. In other words, he whored himself out to sell his book, sold out his journalistic contemporaries by confirming the right wing’s worst fears about them on national radio, and then his book bombed.
Mark Halperin sucks and Time will be even more irrelevant with him. Congrats to both parties.