Every drag queen, club kid, and homosexual in New York (and in the media) came out to celebrate the silver anniversary of the downtown chronicler extraordinaire. It was like Area all over again!
The gays—why do they cover politics? Because it is like a big campy gay soap opera, with divas and backstabbing and drama, of course! That is just one of the things we learned in Gawker Alum Jesse Oxfeld's story about the gays who cover campaigns! "'I think that the theater of politics is of real interest to political reporters,' says one of them. 'And a lot of gay reporters are theater junkies as well.'" You don't say, hah. Here's the paragraph most important for those of you keeping score at home:
On his Tumblr today, Alex Balk muses on Nick Denton's morality, suggests that his vision of hell involves doing his current job with Radar, and makes one (1) tit joke. Guest-blogging at kottke.org, Choire Sicha continues mining Times metro sections of days past for ironies and gimlet-eyed commentary on the sorry state of 2008 New York. Doree Shafrir has a photo of Emily Gould's dog. Emily Gould has re-launched her blog. Jesse Oxfeld IMd us earlier to remind us that he has "a very small and entirely static presence" on the Internet. Jessica Coen's website has itself been fairly static since the start of the year. [Previously]
The bizarre Gawker colonization of (or assimilation by!) New York magazine continues. Following in the footsteps of founding editor Elizabeth Spiers, who spent a year at the magazine, and her former Gawker co-editor Jesse Oxfeld, who was recently booted upstairs to the position of senior editor, Jessica Coen, most lately of Vanity Fair's website, is taking a position as New York Senior News Editor, managing their ever-growing online presence. (Forty-something staff and growing!)
Are Valentine and Olga Rei really the former child superstars they told the author of New York's socialite cover story they are? Stunningly, these notorious liars may have lied about that too! At least, that's what New York's own Daily Intel's Jesse Oxfeld thinks.
Hot Village Voice news from the Post! Apparently, no one outside of the hallowed halls of the Columbia School of Journalism wants to work for the struggling paper.
Today, New York magazine's website launches its long-awaited Daily Intelligencer, their catch-all front page blog edited by Gawker alum Jesse Oxfeld. It's what you'd expect of a blog: succinct recaps of Times, metro goings-on, word of a hairdresser's secret race car hobby. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But we'd like to focus more on the timing of Oxfeld's new venture, the debut of which falls squarely in the midst of Sukkot. Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters, following their exodus from Egypt. Is it any coincidence that Oxfeld rejoices/blogs on this day? Mazel tov, indeed.
After weeks of ads touting the newest New York blog, Title T/K, we've been aquiver in anticipation for the site. Well, 10.02.06 has finally arrived, and the whole damn thing is T/K. We're hearing that the reason for the failure to launch has something to do with the blog's editor, Gawker alum Jesse Oxfeld, who refuses to work on Yom Kippur. (Hope all you Jews are enjoying your atonement, by the way. Just focus on the couple of pounds you're going to lose by sundown!) It's nice to know that, series of announcement ads or not, you don't say no to the Sandy Koufax of blogging. Still, our understanding is that the thing will start up next Monday, i.e., Columbus Day. Will no one speak for the wops?
In his first scoop as newly-minted media reporter for The Observer Michael Calderone reports that Jesse Oxfeld, the former editor of this very site, has taken a job as senior web editor for New York magazine. According to Oxfeld, the opportunity arose when, "I was at July 4th fireworks at a New York staffer's place. That's where I met Ben Williams, who is running their web project." We're thrilled for Jesse and glad to hear that he's still hanging out with the right sort of people. But all those comparisons between Oxfeld and Elizabeth Spiers?
Well. So that happened. Interestingly, it's all basically true: This is my last Gawker post; whatever direction the site takes in the future, I won't be along for the ride. So just a few quick words on my way out, if I may. My year here has been a blast — the most fun I've ever had in a job and, in the last four months, the best traffic the site has ever had. I owe lots of thanks to Lockhart Steele, for bringing me in and subsequently becoming in many ways the best boss I've ever worked for, and to Nick Denton, for signing the checks. Jessica Coen is the perfect partner in a gig like this — smart, hilarious, on top of everything that's going on, and entirely unwilling to take any shit, whether from the outside world or from me. The rest of the Gawker Media crowd — the other sites' editors, the tech guys, the interns, even the ad-sales dude — are the sharpest, most fun group of pros around, and I'll miss having excuses to get drunk with them. Most important, though, is to thank all of you, who not only read the damned thing every day and correct the typos but who also provide the scores of invaluable tips, observations, gossip, and gags I blithely stole and posted as my own. Without you, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. Finally, before I go, I'd like to say one last thing to Anderson, Maer, Alessandra, Laurel, publicists, Nikki, Philadelphians, Kruc, and everyone else I've mocked from this perch: Denton made me do it. —JKO
