As of Monday, David Lat and Alex Pareene are the editors of Wonkette, and Ana Marie Cox has “officially” been moved to Wonkette Emerita status.
During the changing of the guard, the site got a slight makeover (pictured below, in the new editors’ introductory post/coming out party), with a 2-column layout closer to those of its Gawker siblings’ Gizmodo, Consumerist, and Deadspin. And yes, the trademark Wonkette girl w/ glasses illustration–which looks nothing like Cox, Lat, or Pareene–remains.
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After a month-long absence we’re happy to report–Nick Denton lives!
One thing Denton probably wasn’t doing during his blog hiatus was discussing Bubble 2.0. Which makes him the only male blogger over 30 who wasn’t. Tangential metatheory–the Bubble on the Bubble talk may burst during 2006. Stay tuned.
Chewbacca has started blogging. Fortunately, so far he’s staying mum on the whole Bubble 2.0 meme. (via)
Sure, you’ve seen K-Fed’s PopoZao. But have you witnessed the glory that is Peanut Butter Federline? (via)
Speaking of video, have you placed your bid on Rocketboom ad space on eBay yet? Judging by the one bid as of 1pm EST, I’m guessing not. For the exposure, the price is right–but we’ll have to wait and see what brands turn over creative control to the Rocketboomers.
And finally, FeedButler launches–think Digg or del.icio.us, with an Aquafied interface. You know we love the shiny…but where’s the AJAX? Where’s the faded yellow technique? Sorry…until you get that stuff, it’s still Web 1.5 to me.
Call it what you want…here’s the latest (i.e. this week’s) happenings in Blogsylvania:
Contrary to popular rumormongering this week, Digg’s not selling. Seriously. At least for the next 20 minutes.
Google admits they screwed the pooch with Google Video’s launch. Between Yahoo!’s “We’re cool with 2nd place” search announcement and this Google apology, Steve Rubel senses a Jimmy Swaggart vibe going on in Web 2.0 land.
Kottke’s talking about “high volume flow”, and shockingly, it has nothing to do with showering.
Paul Scrivens’ Fine Fools Network has undergone some shrinkage, leaving 4 entertainment-focused sites (Sexerati, It’s Useless, Damn I’m Cute, and A Man’s View), mostly penned by Scrivs himself. At least one Fine Fools author asks “what about me?”
Page Six announces Gawker mommy Elizabeth Spiers’s next project, Dealbreaker. Gawker relays the news, along with polite ribbing over the less-than-sexy DiscountMart domain sales page currently up at the site’s future home. In other Gawker news, rumors of Denton & Co.’s next project seem to be swirling the Bay Area wildly.
Back in New York, everyone’s favorite pink paper unmasks anonyblogger The Opinionista (Melissa Lafsky), in an announcement that no one saw coming. And by ‘no one’ we clearly mean Team Gawk. Elsewhere in NYC, the Black Table’s down to its last few hours of existence….so naturally it’s time to roast those involved, then drink heavily.
And finally, the Newsreader Circle of Life continues–FeedLounge launches a day before Searchfox shuts down. The OPML dance marches on.
Mmm, enjoying my morning cuppa crappa, I was catching up on all my “news” on Gawker (that whole Alito thing is just too much of drag to deal with first thing). Scanning down through all the hum drum, I read this boxed in post* and kept waiting for the punchline.
…waiting, waiting…
No punchline. It was just an ad. Just a silly ad with copy about as entertaining as the rest of the fodder.
Sigh. Just remembering the days of yore before you broke our heart.
*full text after the jump
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After a furious weekend of thumbnailing by Nikolai Nolan, the 2006 Bloggie nominees have officially been announced. Go check them out, while we try to put together something resembling “full coverage”.
It’s like the night before Christmas and I’m positively shitting myself because Friday! Tomorrow! January 20th!, the nominees for the 2006 Bloggies will be annouced!
Did you feel that? That electric shock of contagious flare sparking from one disgruntled-&-bitter-at-work blogger to another bored-housewife-with-a-digi-cam-&-low-self-esteem blogger? It’s spreading like wildfire! Bloggie fever!
This year, the categories have been updated to include new ones such as best podcast & best teen blog.
We, here at Blogebrity, would like to make a few additional suggestions for next year:
Best Outed Anonymous Blog
Best Now Rarely Updated & Half as Interesting Since the Book Deal Blog
Best Most Popular Blog that is Really One Big Inside Joke Amoung 15 People Blog
Best One Trick Pony/Beating a Dead Horse Blog
Best Splog
On Friday, January 20, the finalists will be announced and voting will be open again to choose the winners.
Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Sunday, January 31. The winners will be posted sometime between Sunday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 15.
First Arianna, now Gawker’s getting into the “reader-generated content” spirit:
Because we all like to watch, Gawker is looking to develop some original video content. Think mini-documentaries on crack: watching the media wanks slide in and out of Michael’s, screwing with the Condé security desk, or going undercover to document the horror of a book party.
As such, we’re looking to hire some guerilla video filmmakers. You MUST have your own DV equipment. And while the pay is meager, the exposure will be fantastic. Or, at least, better than that of Current.
What they’ll do with the video, we’ll have to wait and see…they don’t say where the Gawker Guerrilla Video Project will play. We can only hope that the DVD is out in time for Christmas ‘06.
The contest that launched this ol’ site is back, courtesy of Arianna Huffington, Jonah Peretti, and the good people at the Huffington Post.
HuffPo is now accepting entries for the Huffington Post Contagious Festival. In their words:
The Huffington Post Contagious Festival is a unique opportunity for talented designers, political activists of any persuasion, filmmakers and comics to reach millions of people with creative, viral online work. The contestants that create the best projects get Internet fame and the chance to meet with friends of Huffington Post from the worlds of entertainment and politics to discuss future projects and opportunities.
So basically, a lot like the contest that we were a part of–but with more cash ($2,500 to the winner), and a bigger stage to launch from. Oh, and did we mention that the judges this time include John Cusack, Noah Baumbach (writer/director, The Squid & the Whale), AOL EVP Jim Bankoff and Arianna herself?
Blogebrity’s pursuit of Contagious dynasty begins here.
I have a startling confession to make: I’ve fallen in love with a corporate-funded “fake” blog that isn’t even written by a “real” person and (GASP) doesn’t even have an XML feed.
Don’t worry–I’ve already started packing my things for my immediate dismissal from the blogosphere.
But in my defense, Dwight Schrute’s Schrute-Space–written in the voice of a fictional character from NBC’s remake of the BBC classic The Office–is utterly hilarious. Featuring the ramblings of the show’s funniest character (possibly excluding Steve Carell’s hilarious Michael Scott), Schrute-Space is inspired.
If you’re not familiar with the show, you’ve probably already clicked past this story anyways. But if you know the show, then you’ll appreciate the brillance; just check out Dwight’s theories on the ABC hit show LOST:
1) I think the “others” are actually the employees of Oceanic Airlines. Who has ever heard of Oceanic Airlines! I think it was a fake airline that purposefully crashes and does experiments on it’s passengers.
2) I think that the Dharma Initiative would make a cool band name.
3) I think the polar bears are actually hippies from the Dharma Institute in polar bear outfits.
4) I think the asian guy from the Dharma film is the Korean guy’s dad. Think about it. They’re BOTH asian.
Blogebrity’s Hollywood sources tell us that the blog was initially penned by the show’s writing staff, but Rainn Wilson–the actor who plays Dwight–has since started kicking in entries in his character’s voice. Whoever’s writing it, keep it up….and see if you can’t hook us up with an RSS feed.
After all–Dwight would TOTALLY be a feed reader.
Congrats to Jason DeFillippo, who has left Technorati to focus on Metroblogging full-time.
No offense to the working conditions at T’rati (we hear they’re top-notch)–but you know we’ve got to give props to the full-time blogebrities. (via Sean Bonner)
M&A news from Duncan Riley (by way of Jeremy Wright): The Blog Herald is up for sale at a private auction, with current high bids (as of yesterday afternoon) of $65,000 and $72,000. The sale has since closed, and we’ll follow up with as many details as we can get our hands on, as soon as they’re available.
To the losing bidders who might be shopping for another blog-focused property–sorry, Blogebrity’s not for sale. We’re going to continue living off of the riches of textads and affiliate referrals, which do a nice job covering our mortgage payment–on our ice fishing shack in Vladivostok.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to announce that podcasting is FINALLY getting some attention. After all, it’s been around for almost 2 years now–and yet, it’s only being done on every third website. Isn’t it about time this whole “podcasting” revolution kicked into high gear?
Well, high gear here we come–in the form of a new podcasting-focused print magazine. From the launch announcement:
Starting with the first May/June issue, ID3 Podcast Magazine will be delivered bimonthly to subscribers in four formats – online, electronic (PDF), podcast, and/or print. Yes, print! It’s about time podcasters have a full-color print magazine they can call their own – a magazine that packages all the excitement and fascination we’ve discovered in podcasting.
In a related story, our crack editorial staff is still hard at work on the first issue of Blogebrity: The Magazine.
(via Steve Rubel)
Did anyone else see Will Arnett mentioning Gawker during his appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien Friday night? For those who didn’t, it went something like this:
Arnett comes out at the start of the interview, and proceeds to sprawl himself across both guest chairs, laying on his stomach facing Conan. Conan mimics and they share a Tiger Beat moment. Then, as they’re taking their seats:
Arnett: They won’t freeze that on Gawker tomorrow.
(awkward silence)
Arnett: Nobody knows what Gawker is.
Conan: Yeah it’s going to be all over the place….you’re so inside, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
It started so well. If only Will could (a) have the confidence to roll with the Gawker namedrop, and (b) get Gawker’s schedule down, to better time his TV antics to coincide with their posting schedule. No wonder Arrested Development’s about to be cancelled.
BJake’s at it again! And God bless him for it…otherwise, I woulda resorted to posting some high concept piece like where do blogs go when they die or why do people put bandanas on their dogs.
Anyhow…..
A SHIT STORM’S A BREWIN’ and our favorite anti-hero sits supremely on his throne of poo, casting down golden turdlettes upon his blogging colleagues. But, as witnessed by the growing number of fights in various blog’s comments sections, the blogging community has had enough of his crap.
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MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman wraps up his three-part series on snark (I shit you not) this morning with a feature on Gawker, including an interview with editors Jessica Coen and Jesse Oxfeld.
Our favorite segment–when Friedman calls out Coen and Oxfeld for sloppiness–citing only one example, derived from his own Gawker experience:
The heavy workload can contribute to occasional sloppiness. Gawker commented on a Jan. 4 column in which I speculated about who’s in and who’s out in the media. I’d said that because of MSNBC’s “serious improvement,” Fox “could feel a pinch.”
Gawker’s unappealing interpretation: “Jon Friedman is clearly smoking crack, as proved by (among other things) his prediction that MSNBC will beat CNN and Fox News in 2006.” (Among those “other things,” I’d suggested that Gawker was “in” and the New York Post’s gossippy “Page Six was “out.”)
When I good-naturedly protested Gawker’s account of what I’d written, Oxfeld dismissed me by saying I was “splitting hairs.”
Three years worth of Gawking, and that’s the best you can do for ’sloppiness’? No wonder this whole journalism thing is going down the tubes.
