Former Gawker writer Maggie Shnayerson, she of the actual journalistic skills and a keen eye for talent to boot, reflects on the glorious life of a professional blogger life in a new interview: "Seriously, imagine being strapped to a laptop set to explode if you step away from it. Someone is standing over your shoulder pointing a gun at your head, saying 'Okay, ready, set, go. Be brilliant. Suck less, at least.'" That "someone?" Gersh Kuntzman. (And currently: Alex Pareene). [PurePolitics, MaggieShnayerson.com]

Choire compiled the ultimate Gawker Alumni Report. Go see what every former editor is doing right now! (Except, uh, Maggie?) (Update: Nevermind! Now it is comprehensive, except of course for the OLDE WEEKEND CREW) [Radar]

Former (awesome!) Gawker media reporter Maggie Shnayerson is guest editing at New York magazine's Daily Intel blog over the next week, and her first bylined post is already up! It's about how the sorts of statistics being used to judge Gov. David Paterson's performance are highly flawed. Not untrue! Also amusingly self-referential.

For the liberal-arts majors who still dominate the ranks of reporters, simple multiplication is a daunting task. Which is likely why Radar and Silicon Alley Insider have contributed 419 words about the firing of Gawker reporter Maggie Shnayerson, yet failed to answer the essential question: How much was she making? The answer is simple, based on publicly available information:

NICK DENTON — I am, says Jacob Weisberg, doing a "Cheney" — heading the search committee for a new managing editor of Gawker, and choosing myself. Thanks for that. Yes, Brian Stelter had the story right. The site won't change much: it will remain focused on media gossip and pop culture; Alex Pareene will blog the breaking news; Maggie Shnayerson will continue to embarrass the magazine industry and permalancer-abusing media conglomerates such as Viacom; and Sheila McClear will cover book publishing. We'll be adding some new contributors over the next few weeks. To begin: Richard Morgan, who'll focus on the TV networks; Nick Douglas, a Gawker Media veteran, as our early warning antenna for Youtube clips and other pop culture phenomena on the web; Richard Lawson, better known as the commenter lolcait, will be running the site's new photo caption contest. Oh, and there's a surprise guest, this afternoon at 2pm, in the comments. After the jump, other new year changes at Gawker's sibling titles, if you're interested.

So what the hell happened here last week? A girl can't take a couple weeks off between jobs without all hell breaking loose? And I was so looking forward to tormenting my soon-to-be-former coworker Alex Balk on a daily basis. Moment of silence for The Cock, people. So I'm Maggie, and I'll be your Associate Editor (and apparently Gawker's token Gentile) for the remainder of the flight. As previously mentioned, I sold out to the man for a few years and spent some time shilling for the Village Voice and the New York Sun, but regular paychecks and solid benefits get old fast. Happy to be here. Let the wild rumpus begin!

We did not hear until now that Village Voice deputy managing editor Adamma Ince quit last week. He SHE was, we understand, the paper's only black editor. We'd call the Voice PR department for comment but their spokesperson quit too. Hnarf!

A new addition to the gang here will begin work on September 24th. Her name is Maggie Shnayerson, and she has been employed most recently as the PR chick at the Village Voice. (Her official title: publicity director.) Prior to that, she's reported for the Sun, freelanced here and did some stringing there, was an editorial intern at Time and was an editor at The Dartmouth. We were most impressed with Maggie when dealing with her on stories about the Voice: She was a complete hardass. Kind of a bitch, in fact! But a superfun bitch. This is a prime requirement for working here. I also liked that she has experience with how the business side of media things are run—and also a great ear for how PR spin is propagated. What else? She likes a stiff drink, which is key. Also she attended Brearley. Heh. We're so pleased to welcome her back to the other side.

• The Onion, it turns out, has been nursing a master plan for domination for untold years. Either that or it's April 1 on Sunday. But we're pretty sure they're serious. Also, The Onion News Network is all about the communist-daycare style YouTube clip-sharing. Why? Because they are not idiots. [Variety]
  

At long last, the Village Voice has found itself a managing editor. She's Deborah Kolben, most recently of the Sun. Kolben follows the defection of Sun spokesperson Maggie Shnayerson, which suggests that either there's something so wrong at New York's mostly unread wacky conservative paper (as opposed to the wacky, but read, Journal) that even Cooper Square seems idyllic by comparison or that after dealing with Alicia Colon on a regular basis, Mara Altman gives no cause for concern. Full memo after the jump.

It may seem to you like the equivalent of jumping off the Titanic to climb aboard a larger — but still sinking — ship, but congratulations to New York Sun uberflack Maggie Shnayerson, who will be leaving that, uh, organization to toil in the fields of the Village Voice. We suppose it might be nice to not have to read Alicia Colon on a professional level anymore. Full release after the jump.