Elizabeth Spiers Out as New York Observer Editor
Former Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers took over as editor of the New York Obsever in February of 2011, bringing a measure of stability to what had been a decidedly up-and-(mostly) down enterprise under parsimonious wunderkind owner Jared Kushner. Now, Spiers is leaving.
The NYO just announced that this will be Spiers' last month on the job—she's leaving "to launch a new company." Which is something she's done before, so. Plausible, but vague. The NYO's new editor will be NYC media veteran Aaron Gell, who's been her deputy editor.
Spiers tells us: "I was working on the startup idea when Jared approached me and it's kind of been in the back of my head as we've been looking at what's happening in media right now and how business models are changing. And I did what I was brought into do here, which was turn the thing around and stabilize it, so now it's a question of where the company goes next. Jared and I have a good relationship and will still be working together on the Observer for the next few months, if not longer in other capacities."
If internal dissatisfaction contributed to this move, the truth will come out. If not, congrats to all!
