Nick Denton’s Gawker Media is parting with three of its blogs: political gossip site Wonkette, travel site Gridskipper and music site Idolator, dumping ballast in a stormy ad market.
Denton put it simply in a memo to employees, first seen on Silicon Alley Insider:
Why these three sites? To be blunt: they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did. … it would be naive to think that we can merely power through an advertising recession. We need to concentrate our energies … on the sites with the greatest potential for audience and advertising.
Here’s the details:
* Buzznet, a music social network, is buying Idolator after snapping up its main rival Stereogum.
* Gridskipper is being taken over by urban info site Curbed. Gawker holds a stake.
* Wonkette, founded by Ana Marie Cox, will be spun off to managing editor Ken Layne and become part of the Blogads network of political sites like Daily Kos.
