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There will still be a Defamer brand and Hollywood posts, but they will run as a section of Gawker's main site. Owner Nick Denton explains it's part of Gawker's transition from a New York-centric website to, as he puts it, "a national gossip site." Former Variety and W magazine writer Gabriel Snyder, Gawker's managing editor, will now oversee Defamer as well and Gawker's Richard Lawson will be assigned to the Defamer beat. Denton says Gawker/Defamer will be hiring a Hollywood gossip writer and that Seth Abramovitch and other current Defamer staffers will be leaving the site. Finally, Denton says this puts an end to the effort to sell Defamer. Last year, a Denton memo leaked in which he called on his sites to "put back the Gawkeresque angry-creative-underclass glint to our voice. Just one glint of nastiness per post." More of his guidance: "be insulting, but be surprising."
Previously on LA Observed:
Lisanti turns in his Defamer blazer
Defamer as celebrity
Paid by the nipple slip
Defamer Inc.