Valleywag
too insidery
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self-referential
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Valleywag editor spins firing as great leap forward
Sweater-bear editor Owen Thomas just sent the following email to staff here. It's so obviously designed to be leaked that my only reaction is: Owen, can you please not use the little asterisks for bullet points? Movable Type screws up the formatting when you blockquote them. MORE
too insidery
caption contest
"Come back, Mr. Arrington -- I swear I'm not going to pitch you a startup"
Valleywag's Jackson West attempts, unsuccessfully, to thank TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington for throwing a party in Los Angeles. Can you improve the headline? Try your best in the comments. (Photo by Bonny Pierzina, who was later thrown out of the party)
road warrior
Valleywag in the air
It's not our custom to post datelines, but you may have noted some on recent posts. That's because I'm in New York today, blogging side by side with associate editor Nicholas Carlson. Melissa Gira Grant is off to Atlanta for some kind of "sex 2.0" conference. Jackson West is in Los Angeles. And on Sunday, Carlson is coming to San Francisco for a week of Valley reeducation, as I beat the last remnants of New York media groupthink out of him.
we read twitter so you don't have to
You love us! You really love us!
Sometimes people on Twitter just speak the truth. [Twitter]
great moments in journalism
Owen Thomas ruins Julia Allison for the rest of us
"At first, she wore a va-va-va-voom dress. I told her she'd catch pneumonia. Now she wears a sweater and jeans. I'm very proud of that." — Valleywag editor and sweater bear Owen Thomas, bragging — bragging! — about his campaign to stamp out the last remnants of glam in Silicon Valley. Thanks for nothing, bosstard.
great moments in journalism
Jon Friedman's media columns for MarketWatch rarely leave me short on words. But the worst thing I can say about his latest one, which hails Valleywag as a new media creation which he says has surpassed its New York "cousin" Gawker, is that it goes on far too long. 726 words of logorrhea on a gossip rag? Even on a slow news day, that's too much to bother reading. Forthwith, a 100-word version of "How Valleywag trumps Gawker — and enlivens Silicon Valley":
More »
"How Valleywag trumps Gawker" -- the 100-word version
Jon Friedman's media columns for MarketWatch rarely leave me short on words. But the worst thing I can say about his latest one, which hails Valleywag as a new media creation which he says has surpassed its New York "cousin" Gawker, is that it goes on far too long. 726 words of logorrhea on a gossip rag? Even on a slow news day, that's too much to bother reading. Forthwith, a 100-word version of "How Valleywag trumps Gawker — and enlivens Silicon Valley":
More »
blogging for dollars
Calacanis explains how Denton rips off his writers with "best pay in the business"
The week's not complete until bulldog-cute Mahalo chief Jason Calacanis writes in. Today JC emailed twice to call out a gaping hole in the much-discussed New Dentonomics of our 2008 Valleywag pay scale. His numbers are out of date; our new pageview rate for the second quarter is in, and it's $6.50 per thousand pageviews. But Calacanis spotted a bigger slap to the face than the CPM, one so big that Portfolio blogger Felix Salmon will have to do a whole 'nother post now to say he knew it all along. Can you guess what it is?More »
housekeeping
Where to find our stats
Valleywag publisher Nick Denton likes to boast that our traffic statistics are published for anyone to peruse. As a former user interface developer, I'm painfully aware that we've made it impossible to find them. Here are the hot links to two of our three separate site statistics feeds. Thank God the numbers don't add up, or I'd really doubt them. More »
blogging for dollars
Valleywag writer's pay complaint -- the 100-word version
Jordan Golson, Valleywag's resident hypercapitalist, is distressed that he's not going to learn the terms of his pageview-based bonus — which, mind you, he'll likely earn on top of his $2,500-a-month base pay — until three days into the second quarter. The ginger whinger made me proud with a headline so sensational that it offended even my boss. But he disappointed me by wasting readers' time, taking a self-indulgent 542 words to get his point across. After the jump, a readable version of Golson's overwrought, underreported screed: More »
april fools
Yahoo CFO announces unsolicited bid for affection from colleagues
Why do corporations and executives participate in April Fools' pranks? To make them seem human, for at least one day. Here's the suddenly likable Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgensen showing how well that can work. Fresh from laying off hundreds of their colleagues, he announces to employees that this morning Yahoo made an unsolicited takeover bid for a gossip website. After the jump, the internal announcement posted on Yahoo's Backyard intranet, leaked like just about every other memo posted there: More »
robert scoble
Robert Scoble, in what we are 100 percent sure is not an April Fools' Joke, finally admits that he loves Valleywag. [Twitter]
He loves us! He really loves us!
Robert Scoble, in what we are 100 percent sure is not an April Fools' Joke, finally admits that he loves Valleywag. [Twitter]
gawker media
It's April 1 and I don't know what my salary is
The rate that my employer, Gawker Media, pays its contract writers was adjusted tonight at midnight. The staff of this site has not been told the details of the new pay rate, but we do know that everyone at Valleywag is getting a per-view pay decrease. Senior management is promising the hit is only a "modest reduction." I'm told we'll find out the new pay plan by the end of the week. In the mean time, writers are getting a paycut, but are expected to continue working even though we don't know what we're getting paid. Read on for some background and an explanation of how Gawker writers are compensated. More »
12:01 AM on Tue Apr 1 2008
By Jordan Golson
15,381 views,
56 comments
Latest by PhilWil: Well, this is interesting. Is this the norm for blog site networks? Just my 2cents: I always took the blog writer job as a supplement job to your regular day gig, not the one and only job you got. more »
valleyspeak
Why don't you just read Valleywag? That seems easier
Commenter Matthew O'Ryan is on to us. He's noticed how a throwaway line has become our new catchphrase: "That seems easier." In an industry full of people who claim to be obsessed with efficiency, why do we have to keep explaining over and over the simple way to do things? Because Valley denizens secretly love doing things the hard way — and they hate it when people point out we're doing it wrong. Neophilia, cast as a love of innovation, is actually an algorithm for generating ever-changing shibboleths that keep outsiders away. They make things complicated because it entertains them; because they love challenges and puzzles; because they can. But the world that pays their bills? Customers like things simple. Why not keep them happy? Ah, but you know how that would seem.
10:20 AM on Fri Mar 28 2008
By Owen Thomas
371 views,
7 comments
Latest by robinwauters: Ha, but at least I got around to registering thatseemseasier.com ! You can have it for as little as $ 300 000. Actually, strike that: I'll settle for € 300 000 ;) I promise to pay myself a $ 1 dollar only more »
blogging for dollars
Gizmodo vs. Engadget in Wired -- the 100-word version
The April issue of Wired has a lengthy piece on gadget blogs. Most of the focus is on Gizmodo (disclosure: Valleywag is owned by Gawker Media, parent company to Gizmodo) and the rise of the gadget blogs in influence and reach. It's worth a read, but if you're too busy frantically reloading Engadget and Gizmodo to read the whole thing, we've tagged the high points below. More »
breakdowns
Valleywag brought down by outage -- editor blames sci-fi fans
Coincidentally, the Valleywag crew was chatting in Campfire about how much we loved a new site we'd discovered, Downforeveryoneorjustme.com, right before we had to use it on our own site. Some theories we came up with: Nick Denton, Gawker Media's owner and publisher of Valleywag, likes to bring down his sites occasionally just to watch how his editors deal with the unbearable pressure of not being able to write. As part of Jason Calacanis's new Valleywag charm campaign, Mahalo guides posted so many links to us that it brought the site down. Or, most plausibly, outraged Arthur C. Clarke fans launched a denial-of-service campaign against the unremarkable observation that the deceased sci-fi writer was an admitted pedophile.
quotable
Jason Calacanis wants to hug Nick Denton
New strategy for dealing with Nick Denton: everyone give him a HUGE 30second hug. We will hug the love back into him (nick carlson's idea!)Yeah Jason, you know just how to deal with people. Oh, and nothing against my boss's boss, but I'd rather hug Taurus and Fondue. [Twitter]
bad ideas
