Gabriel Snyder 'canned' as editor of Gawker

Gawker this afternoon posted two internal memos about itself: one that the site has acquired Cityfile to be its main New York news channel, and the other that Gawker editor-in-chief Gabriel Snyder is out. Snyder posted that one himself:

For reasons which I'm not too clear on, but I'm sure Nick Denton will explain momentarily, I am being replaced as editor-in-chief of Gawker.

Honesty is Gawker's only virtue, so it seems inappropriate to engage in the usual corporate euphemisms of "wanting to explore new new opportunities" or "take a larger role in the company" or "spend more time with my family" (though eighteen-hour days and seven-day work weeks do take their toll on personal relationships), so I'll put this as plainly as we'd report any other masthead ouster: I am being canned.

Building this website into what it is today — a big operation with 11 writers, a regular source of national news and a challenger to the mainstream media organizations that it once mocked — has been the best job of my career. Transitioning from print to online meant adopting an entirley new biorhythm. Transitioning from writer to editor has meant learning to bask in the reflected glory of the talented staff who contribute every day. I love Gawker and adore the crew that makes it happen.

[skip]

The history of Gawker Media careers shows that they tend to burn bright and fast. So it shouldn't have come as a much of a surprise when our mercurial owner told me he's hatched other plans for Gawker. He offered me a new, temporary position as an assistant managing editor of Gawker Media as a holding job, which I have declined.

Denton, the emperor of the Gawker blog empire, may be resorting to euphemism when he says in his memo that "We had hoped to persuade Gabriel Snyder to stay in a management role. But he's moving on." Before going to New York for Gawker, Snyder was in L.A. as a writer for W and Variety.

Previously on LA Observed:
Gawker in turmoil again