Valleywag Drops Editor, Shifts Mission To Less Sex, More Old School Reportage; Denton Returns To Tech Beat

Silicon Valley nerds having secret office sex can breathe a little easier today. Valleywag, Gawker Media’s year-old tech gossip blog, has dropped its 21-year-old editor, Nick Douglas, redesigned and shifted its mission from one of covering personal peccadillos — toning down “the personal coverage of civilians, because they haven’t done anything to seek out attention” — to more traditional, at least in a blog-sense, money stories.

This summer, Gawker admitted it lost a syndication with Yahoo, in part, because “Valleywag’s persecution of Lloyd Braun, head of Yahoo Media, probably cast a pall over the relationship.”

Gawkerdaddy Nick Denton — who plucked Douglas from blogscrurity (and college) — is filling in for Douglas until a new editor is found. (Denton’s last reporting gig was covering the Valley space.) And, in another surprise, they’re looking for someone with “old-media” experience.

An e-mail to Douglas seeking has yet to be returned. Gawker Media declined to comment.

EARLIER:

Gawker, Yahoo End Syndication Deal; Valleywag’s Persecution of Braun ‘Cast a Pall Over the Relationship’

FishbowlNY’s Gawker Shakeup Coverage:

After Shakeup, Gawker Redesigns Flagship, Gizmodo

Gawker Managing Editor: Media Coverage ‘Will Remain The Core of What We Do’

Oxfeld’s Final Gawk Post: To ‘Everyone I’ve Mocked From This Perch: Denton Made Me Do It’

Denton On Gawker Shift: ‘Like a TV Network, We Have to Back Our Hits, And Clear Out Our Schedules Of Less Popular Shows’

Gawker’s Denton: ‘Better to Sober Up Now, Before the End of the Party’

Oxfeld On Gawker Tenure: ‘I Was Brought In Explicitly To Bring Gawker Back To Its Original Inside-Media Mission, And I Think I Did That’

Gawker To Focus ‘More On Pop Culture And Less On The Media’?

Oxfeld Out In Gawker Shakeup

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