Blogosphere Moves: Owen Thomas Leaves Valleywag ; Ryan Tate Promoted

Tech gossip journalist Owen Thomas announced over the weekend that he was leaving Gawker Media‘s tech column Valleywag for an NBC-owned startup news site about the Bay Area.

Thomas supposedly has a “penchant for management,” according to Gawker owner Nick Denton, which the gossip writer didn’t get to exercise after Denton rolled Valleywag’s content into Gawker.com and fired all five writers late last year. At his new gig, NBCBayArea.com, which is still in beta, he’ll be the managing editor, which should provide the responsibility he craves.

Ryan Tate, Valleywag’s night editor, has been promoted to fill Thomas’s spot, and Gawker’s now looking for a night editor to replace Tate.

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