I love Owen, but he has trouble writing in English during a crisis. So here's the basics on what's happening at Valleywag:

  • Some guy named Denton can't figure out how to sell ads on Valleywag.
  • So he's going to sneak Valleywag posts onto Gawker.com, where Ketel One is happy to buy banners.
  • Valleywag.com the URL will still work. Valleywag's RSS feed will still work. You will not have to go to Gawker.com to read Valleywag stories.
  • In 2009, Owen will be posting full-time, maybe 6-12 posts per day. Everyone else is fired.
  • Denton's trying to follow Wired's footsteps: Take an insidery, localized publication and make it a national daily read. Will it work? Maybe. Will Chris Tolles still reload obsessively? That's the challenge.
  • Valleywag's traffic isn't enough to pay for two writers, even with Ketel One ads on every page. Denton's keeping Owen instead of me, because Owen likes to write about boring money issues that, in theory, Chris Tolles thinks are way more important than photos of Steve Jobs parked in a handicapped space.
  • I'm here until December 1. Owen gets his Thanksgiving vacation. I get an extra month's rent.
  • TechCrunch gets to pretend we don't exist, which makes them look like a bunch of five-year-olds. Everybody wins!
  • You're worried about me? I owe the New York Times one short freelance article, that's all I feel comfortable saying. I'll be fine, because I'm nuts. Nuclear combat, toe to toe with the Rooskies!