In late February, Defamer.com was rolled into Gawker.com. This put Seth Abramovitch, Kyle Buchanan and S.T. VanAirsdale out of a job. However they were given another opportunity in the form of blogging once again for Movieline.com. Movieline was originally a magazine that started in 1989 and was stringing along for a couple of years. Jane Fonda was on the first cover of the magazine. Jay Penske, the son of automobile racing team and Penske Corporation founder Roger Penske set-up the revamping of Movieline. Movieline will be part of Mail.com, the company that was relaunched by Penske and raised $35 million in funding last year.
Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media has decided to fold Defamer into Gawker.com in order to assimilate to a struggling economy. This past December, it was rumored that Defamer was up for sale, but I suppose that there wasn’t any good enough offers. Defamer will simply become part of Gawker’s entertainment section.
Defamer.com will still remain open but their posts will feed into Gawker’s feed. Gabrie Snyder, Gawker’s managing editor will oversee the transition. Defamer is about four years old. Gawker brings in about 3 million visitors per month. This is four times the number that they were receiving a year ago.
Defamer writers Seth, Stu, and Kyle will be out of a job at Gawker, but the company is now hiring a Hollywood gossip writer. This past November, Valleywag was also rolled into Gawker.
