Industry Moves: Valleywag Editor Owen Thomas Defects To NBC
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
Perhaps folding Valleywag into a Gawker.com column wasn't such a good idea. Editor Owen Thomas is leaving the tech gossip blog to join *NBC*, less than six months after Gawker Media founder Nick Denton downsized it from a standalone site. Full details on his new gig aren't clear, but it appears he'll still be focused on news from the Silicon Valley region. Gawker's night editor Ryan Tate will take over for Thomas.
Thomas joined Gawker from Business 2.0 in 2007 (a few months before *Time* ceased print publication of the mag, incidentally); he took over editorial duties from Denton. The Valleywag team grew to a total of five writers under Thomas, but Denton wound up laying off the rest of the team late last year. Denton hinted to TechCrunch that the loss of responsibility was partly the reason Thomas was leaving for NBC.
By Tameka Kee