So This Is Goodbye
After two years filled with late-night wars, Jon Stewart smackdowns, TV movie meltdowns, Mariah Carey moments, cable news feuds/farts/giggle fits, awards show mayhem, stupid politicians, stupider reality stars, stupidest Kardashians, stunts from Lady Gaga, satire from Stephen Colbert, the Food Network's classiest (and trashiest), gay activism, teenage triumphs/tribulations, devils dancing topless, South Park, SNL, cats, corgis, cute curmudegons and rent that was too damn high, it's time for me to say goodbye.
This will be my final post on Gawker, a site on which I've had the great privilege—and an even greater pleasure—of posting nearly every night for the last 24 months (via Gawker.TV for the first 15 of them). I'm incredibly sad to leave, of course, but even more excited about what the future has in store for me (most notably the ability to make plans for tomorrow that don't involve clipping The Daily Show at 11:00 PM sharp). Before I get to that, though, I'd like to take a moment to thank a few key people without whom, and without whose guidance and support, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Thank you to Owen Thomas for writing about my fake Dina Lohan Twitter account and inadvertently turning me into a daily Gawker reader/commenter. (Also: #Protegay). Thank you to Richard Blakeley for taking a chance on an overly eager kid in West Michigan (and to Whitney Jefferson, Mike Byhoff, Matt Toder and all of our awesome interns for riding the Gawker.TV wave with me). Thank you to Rachel Sklar for convincing me—and then my parents—that I needed To Move To New York City (and to Dahlia for helping me actually do it). Thank you to Gabriel Snyder for educating me during those all-important early months. Thank you to Remy Stern for providing me with an immeasurable amount of professional and personal guidance in 2011. Thank you to AJ Daulerio for being kind and understanding as I made this transition. Thank you to Scott Kidder for a list of things longer than I wish to type, and to Nick Denton for a slightly shorter version of that list. Thank you to all of the supremely talented Gawker writers with whom I've had the privilege of working, as well as everyone else at Gawker Media who I'm proud to call a friend.
Lastly, and most importantly, thank you to the readers who consumed the content I produced each night and the commenters who provided their insights, for without you—each and every one of you—I'm just some schmuck with a Slingbox.
Those of you who wish to keep in touch with me beyond the Gawkersphere (and I really hope you do!) may do so at BuzzFeed, where I'll be joining as senior editor on January 3. In the meantime, I can be found on Twitter at @mattchew03, on Tumblr, or via email.