Newsier Gawker Looks Beyond Manhattan

Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper become casualties of economic belt-tightening

(NEWSER) - Gawker Media is cutting loose three of its blogs, CNET reports: Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper. “To be blunt," explained Gawker founder Nick Denton in an internal email, "they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did." Denton wouldn't comment on the prices the sites might've fetched. More»

Saga raises debate about checkbook journalism

(NEWSER) - Nick Denton, the big cheese at Gawker Media, paid $5,000 for the iPhone prototype Gizmodo showed the world last week—a fact notably absent from the company's published account of how it acquired the phone. He got 3.6 million unique visitors for his trouble, but no massive ad-revenue bump (Gizmodo's ads are sold in advance), so by the time he finished paying legal fees, bonuses to his writers, and the additional bandwidth cost, the scoop actually cost him $20,000, he tells David Carr of the New York Times . More»

It may be the first time social-networking popularity has been a job requirement

(NEWSER) - For possibly the first time, an active Twitter following is a job requirement, the Telegraph reports. Best Buy asked that candidates for a senior marketing position at the company’s Minnesota headquarters have at least 250 followers for their Twitter pages. The posting also lists “1 year of active blogging experience” as a requirement, along with more conventional marketing experience. More»

Policy restricts number of posts per game from field, courtside

(NEWSER) - The NCAA has set new rules for live-blogging of sporting events, limiting the amount of times a blogger can post new information during a game in an effort to fight a perceived simulacrum of re-broadcasting, Techdirt reports. The new rules are a compromise after an incident in June when a live blogger was ejected from a college baseball game. More»

PC World finds the funniest, most informative, and most esoteric sites

(NEWSER) - PC World chooses the best blogs in 10 categories:

1. Technology News: Slashdot (slashdot.org)
2. Specialty Tech Site: John Battele's Searchblog (battellemedia.com)
3. Company Watcher: Microsoft Watch (microsoft-watch.com)
4. Corporate Blog: The Official Google Blog (googleblog.blogspot.com)
5. Politics and Business: Policybeta (blog.cdt.org)