With nearly 1,200 of you crawling to our ballot box, the votes are in from our Gawker Whacker poll. With Nick Denton ousting Jesse Oxfeld and realigning his flagship title to have more mass appeal (and then today giving Gawker.com a pretty makeover), what did you all have to say? For starters, ya'll thought Oxfeld sucks less than Jessica Coen, though Denton seems to be getting all the real sucking action. As for most of you? You've probably already skipped this item.

Earlier: Gawker Whacker, Part IV: Wherein A Fake Oxfeld Hunts For Jobs
Related: All Gawker Whacker coverage

Appearing yesterday evening on Craigslist, a not-so-conspicuous job hunt:

Former blog editor seeks new opportunity
Reply to: XXX@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-07-02, 5:16PM EDT

Editor of Gawker.com, a very popular media blog, seeking a new opportunity. I'm an experienced writer/editor with both Internet and mainstream media experience. Please email me for more info.

Thank you.

So we asked Jesse Oxfeld: Is this yours? "ha. no. not at all. of course not." So it's a hoax? Of course. The real Jesse Oxfeld would only post a for-hire ad on Mediabistro.

Earlier: Gawker Whacker, Part III: Where The Officials Deliver Their Missives
Related: All Gawker Whacker Coverage

So what're you waking up to this morning in the latest round of Gawker Whacker saga? Well there's David Carr's piece in the New York Times, which was posted late last night. Not much to be said about the rolling heads 'round Gawkerville – "putting two of his sites on the block, reorganizing others and laying off several people" was how he put it – with focus instead placed on Denton's new game plan, which is, to be fair, his old game plan: make money by staying current. How very Madonna. The best part of Carr's item: all-Denton, all the time, and nary an outside source — or even pretending he spoke to one. And blogs are skewed.

Elsewhere, Gawker managing editor Lockhart Steele sent out a missive to staffers, which reads in part:

More than anything, I think the moves are driven by our belief that Gawker needs to remain in a state of constant revolution. Resting on our laurels, and getting lazy, becomes easier as the company matures. Yet, so many of our titles are still in their infancy in terms of what their potential audience size, impact, and editorial could be. Look at our biggest traffic sites — Gizmodo, Gawker, Fleshbot, Defamer, Kotaku, Deadspin, Lifehacker, just for starters. Each amazing in its own way. And each capable of being two, five, ten times bigger than it is now — not just in traffic, but in influence, buzz, and significance. I'm also excited by the buzz around some of our newer titles, like Consumerist, and some ideas we have for new sites. [...]

Regarding Screenhead and Sploid: both sites have been among our favorites, and the bloggers behind them true pros. But if we're to keep our focus, we need discipline to invest more in our hits, cultivate our smaller sites with rising buzz, and develop new titles, like our forthcoming music title. And, yes, part ways with a site when it's not working out for us.

To be clear, by "focus" Lock means "minting cash like a bankrupt Argentina."Meanwhile, Denton will be posting his own Dear John Letter on his blog, which will read in part:

[I]t's easy enough to start a site; increasingly tough to attract attention. Readers tend to give new Gawker sites an initial look at the very least, and we do cross-promote. But each site ultimately stands alone, and succeeds on the uniqueness of its proposition and the quality of the items. There are no sure things.

And back on the Lower East Side, Jessica Coen starts up her first week in quite sometime without Movable Type neighbor Oxfeld. As for the notion that the site is going more mainstream, we understand "broader" is the buzz word. So when a New York Daily News features editor gets whacked, you're going to have to look somewhere else to read about it.

Lastly, let's not forget about our favorite feature, the Gawker Whacker poll.

A Blog Mogul Turns Bearish on Blogs [David Carr, NYT]
Shakeup At Gawker Media: Jesse Oxfeld Out; Shuffle Across Blogs; Two Properties Up For Sale [Rachel Sklar, ETP]

With all the news we're breaking about Jesse Oxfeld's ousting from Gawker, we thought it would only be fair to ask for your reaction. Like guests on Meet The Press, the options are few and obvious.

If you haven't a clue what any of this is about, perhaps you should read Part I and Part II of our Gawker Whacker coverage. Briefly: Gawker boss Nick Denton got rid of editor Oxfeld, but is keeping Jessica Coen on staff. Meanwhile, he's bringing on two new guys to recast the flagship title as a mainstream entertainment destination.

Earlier: Gawker Whacker: Nick Denton Fires Jesse Oxfeld, Shutters 2 Titles
Earlier: Gawker Whacker, Part II: Denton Wants Mainstream Appeal

Exclusive

Because when you begin chatting about the chattering classes, the flood gates of gossip open — which means we've already received our fair share of updates regarding Jesse Oxfeld's ousting at Gawker and Nick Denton's additional slashings. As you recall from our exclusive report earlier today, Gawker honcho Denton dismissed Oxfeld without warning on Friday. Denton, we're told is also going to close two of his titles: Screenhead (made extinct by YouTube) and Sploid (while sporting some impressive CSS, was made extinct by news junkies' continued preference for The Drudge Report and, well, YouTube).

So why is all this happening? Because Denton – who has long touted Gawker's media insider vantage point – wants to take his flagship title more mainstream (read: mainstream = more pageviews = more ad dollars). And that means there's no place for Oxfeld's endless Radar magazine updates and masthead shake up chronicling. Instead, Gawker needs new blood: enter TMFTML/Alex Balk and Gridskipper's Chris Mohney. But while Balk is taking over what's technically Oxfeld's empty Aeron, the real news is Mohney's role: top dog.

After two-plus years helming Gawker, co-editor Jessica Coen is getting a new superior to answer to. In additon to managing editor Lockhart Steele breathing down her neck, newcomer Mohney will techically be Jessica's overseer. And you can imagine how pleased she is with that back stab. (Surely Jessica squelches her tears with hosting duties for the Star channel's Looking For Stars.)

As for readers, they can likely expect an Us Weekly-ization of Gawker, sans bright yellow serif fonts. (Whether Denton will remake Mark Lisanti's Defamer as a bland Hollywood gossip sheet instead of insider studio rag is yet to be determined.)

Now, when it comes to closing Screenhead and Sploid, Denton is looking for a buyer before he's ready to shut them down. But there's a short timeline: one month. If a cheque isn't endorsed by the end of the July, both sites will go under. And so, too, will their staff: "Dong Resin" at Screenhead and Sploid's Ken Layne and Scott Ross will be out of work. And that's not all of Denton's pink slipping: Gizmodo's John Biggs – who joined Denton's stable in April 2005 after founding editor Peter Rojas defected for a future windfall at rival Engadget – is being shown the door as well. (Blogebrity says someone from Wired will be filling in.)

It's also worth noting Oxfeld is the first of Gawker's four editors to leave involuntarily. So what'd Jesse have to say about all the new revelations? "Your account is inaccurate, reckless, and defamatory. I was at most moderately hammered when I arrived at the Magician Friday night." And he has been all weekend.

And remember, there's something to look forward to tomorrow: the New York Times will have its own item about all this.

Update: Nikki Finke weighs in on her favorite email sparring partner. From her item we learn David Carr is penning the piece (where, oh where, is Kit Seelye's byline where it should be?), though if that's true, perhaps Carr should actually touch base with Oxfeld.

Earlier: Gawker Whacker: Nick Denton Fires Jesse Oxfeld, Shutters 2 Titles

Bonus: Now you can vote!

Exclusive

In the hum-drum purr of industry hirings and firings, the rise and fall of beauty editors, research associates, and even senior editors can never compare to tingling we get when it's a media reporter finding a new home. Or, as it so happens in this story, when it's a media reporter in the guillotine.

Sometime Friday, Gawker co-editor Jesse Oxfeld was informed he was no longer welcome at Nick Denton's Movable Type login screen. That's right: Oxfeld's out. Finished. Kaput. His axing came as a complete surprise to the Brill's Content-Editor & Publisher-Mediabistro vet, who, we hear, showed up "completely hammered" at The Magician on Friday night, where the typical blogger suspects (Liz Spiers, Lindsay Robertson) were gathered, to drown his sorrows. Like Bonnie Fuller, Oxfeld's contract was up at the end of June — except his wasn't resigned with a fat bonus.

Jessica Coen, meanwhile, stays on and will be joined on Monday by the editor of Denton's travel title Gridskipper, Chris Mohney – who infamously got his job by fellating Denton with Gawker-obsessed blog Gawkerist – and former anon-a-blogger Alex Balk (aka TMFTML).

Meanwhile, Denton is also said to be closing two titles from his blog stable: College Humor wannabe Screenhead and Drudge Report imitator Sploid — though we're not sure if Screenhead editor "Dong Resin" or Sploid's Ken Layne are gone too, or they'll be absorbed into Gawker's many folds. These would be the second and third blogs Denton closed, following gambling site Oddjack's sale months ago.

And for those who don't believe anything till you read it in the Times, look for an item on Monday. The only mystery yet unsolved: How Andrew Krucoff's name didn't come up in any of this.

Update: The story continues here.

Bonus: Now you can vote!

War in blogland has begun. Gawker's founding editor, Elizabeth Spiers, has snatched a blog editor from former boss Nick Denton. David Lat, who jumped at the chance to blog for Denton at Wonkette, will be joining Spiers as she expands her empire to include a law blog. (Paging Melissa Lafsky!)

Before joining Wonkette, Lat ran a little law blog of his own called Underneath Their Robes, until he was sold out by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker last year. As surprised as we were that Denton picked off an outed blogger, we guess getting press without giving press is always a plus for the Gawker Media mogul.

Last week, when Gawker commented that "coporate blogger" was codename for "working for Spiers," we didn't exactly get it … but with the news that Spiers will be adding two more sites to her company (a fashion blog along with her law venture), it's all coming together. Still, can blogging really get any more corporate than the empire of Denton.

LAT PULLED [Sara James, WWD]
Earlier: Cox to leave Wonkette

What's this? A photo of new Out editor Aaron Hicklin (he's on the left; WWD's Jeff Bercovici on the right)? And what's he doing? Why, he's having drinks with elitist media types (minus us, the uninvited) at the SoHo loft of Gawker Media brass and BFF Nick Denton, who's hosting a party for Michael Jackson, and not the one holed up in Bahrain. And when is Aaron having drinks at Denton's? That'd be Thursday night. You know Thursday night, as in the night when Out magazine was having its own party at T. The party celebrating the first issue of Out that Aaron had a role in.

The party that Aaron skipped.

Earlier: Aaron Hicklin Skips His Own Out Parties

We read Blogebrity for the same reason Kirsten Dunst reads Star. We just like to see what's happening "in the community." And to make sure nobody's talking about us. God forbid, press is like the worst.

Well, that's Nick Denton's "how to get more press" motto, anyway. And when one of his scrub employees sent this photo in of him with Jason Calacanis, we were pretty psyched.

Denton and Calacanis (Weblogs Inc. founder) should be enemies … or at least competitors. But here they are, strolling the streets of New York. The only thing we could love more would be a photo of Rupert Murdoch and Mort Zuckerman clinking glasses of scotch at Elaine's.

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Calacanis and Denton together in NYC! [Kyle Bunch, Blogebrity]

Noticeably absent from Gawker's coverage of last night's NerveVideo.com launch party: Nick Denton getting his mack on in Nerve's kitchen with a one "Doug." We're just happy to see Denton finding love somewhere else than Match.com, though there is a certain irony to his physical affection taking place at a party for a sex-fueled website.

Related: Nick Denton hopes you'll be his

So what if you can't pronounce Ron Burkle's supermarket conglomerate Yucaipa. You've still been thumbing your way through the Daily News, Post (sorta), L.A. Times, and, once again today, the New York Times. David Carr takes his requisite stab at the gossip industry, playing phone tag with all the regulars – Ian Spiegelman, Kurt Andersen, David Pecker, and gossip item emeritus Ed Koch – and reveals the industry shattering news that if your hotel wants to curry good favor from the Sixers, you let their reporters drown in Veuve.

But perhaps a Monday Times article, no matter how beautifully illustrated, wasn't enough for you. Then it's worth your while to thumb through Gawker's weekend archives, fluffed with the most partisan coverage from Nick Denton's camp since Jessica Coen took on Chris Wilson. While Stern utilized the blog's empty restriction on column inches to muster items more nepotistic than ever we could think up to create an embonpoint of ego even Burkle would envy, the real story is in the not so subtle tone of Gawker's editorial crew, suspiciously lacking any hope of authenticity. Said Gawker maestro Jesse Oxfeld to Fishbowl NY:

Giving Jared a gratuitous platform to defend himself is a small price to pay for having someone on duty to cover all the important media news that's sure to break over Easter weekend.

And just when we thought Denton was keeping his feet dry in the pool of transparent attempts at publicity.

The Hard Edge of a Fluff Machine [David Carr, NYT]

• How do TV networks hang on to their viewers? By killing off main characters. (We really hope this means Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy will die soon.) [NYT]

• In his very serious court battle, we find out that Dan Brown does not have the only book store in New Hampshire [NYT]

• Why do we need bloggers? Because the press is too lazy to pick up stories on Fridays. [Slate]

• Mike Lacey doesn't just fire his staffers — he tortures them in front of his staff first. [NYP]

• By insisting he wants less media attention, the press flock to Nick Denton. Shocking how that worked out. [WWD]

The dork club kids over at Wired got together and decided that, "hey, nerds are people too." This may be one of our favorite 2005 lists of the year.

(Do you see what's happening? We're now making top ten lists of our favorite top ten lists. Ridiculous…or brilliant?)

Well, even if our list is kind of lame, this list is brilliant, especially because of the loose use of the term sexy. Bloggers seem to dominate the list, however, and we were not included. We'd like to think it's because we're not geeks.

2005's 10 Sexiest Geeks [Kristen Philipkoski , Wired News]

• If Sara James' list of media holiday parties at WWD wasn't enough for you, the Observer surely rounds out the list. Well, ours isn't included, though it might help if we were celebrating with more than our reflection and a bottle of Ketel One. [NYO]

• Now that Wikipedia has been outed as entirely inaccurate on occasion, NYT staffers are now prohibited from using it to fact check. Judith Miller, however, is still an A-OK source. [Romenesko]

• Katie Couric's interview with TV Guide might as well have been an open letter to Les Moonves. [TVNewser]

• Turns out G+J didn't accurately represent the circulations of the three family titles it unloaded on Meredith Corp. [AdAge]

• The NYT claims to have "not lost one ad" to the WSJ's Weekend Journal. Uh huh. [AdAge]

• With Oddjack folding, Gawker kingpin Nick Denton needs to keep his blog roster figures up. So welcome The Consumerist, a goth approach to spending. [The Consumerist]

• Radar staffers will no longer have to go to work wearing Kevlar: Neighbor The Source is being evicted from West 23rd Street. [NYP]

• Lots of reporters, killed at once. [LAT]

• Vogue's Anna Wintour is claiming responsibility for the death of Variety spin off V Life. When the "trade" publication put Gwyneth Paltrow on its cover at the same time she popped up on Vogue, the edtrix made more than one angry phone call over the actress' saturation. So when the title announced February would be it's last issue, Wintour's ego celebrated. [Radar]

• Tony Danza's daytime chat fest has been signed for the 2006-07 season, but WABC is dropping his obnoxious tone for another: Rachel Ray. [NYP]

• Teen People killed its story of Olsen twin look-a-like white supremecists Lamb and Lynx Gaede after a "junior employee" signed a deal not to use the words "Nazi," supremacist" and "hate" in the copy. [NYP]

• Katie Couric isn't the only one worried about rising babes in network news. Jill Rappaport is reportedly exiting, to be replaced by Matt Lauer's ex-squeeze and video game vixen Maria Menounos. [Page Six]

• In shocking news, magazine editors will be spending their Thanksgivings .. eating .. with family! [WWD]

• Jann Wenner's gift to his staffers: A chance to see U2 for $369. Too bad Jann is friends with the band and could just have easily scored free tix if he actually meant well this holiday. [R&M]

• Nick Denton threatens to shutter a blog — and the blogosphere cries. [Blog Herald]

• Judith Miller will be able to buy friends with her $3 million severance package, but she needn't spend a penny to get some loving from the Observer. [NYO]