Gridskipper sold; freelance contributors gossip around virtual water cooler

This morning Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton announced that Gawker has sold three of its sites, including Gridskipper (Wonkette, the infamous political blog, and Idolator, a music gossip site, are the other two).

Gridskipper, where I’m a contributor, was sold to the Curbed network of blogs, which is owned by former Gawker manager Lockhart Steele (and keeping with the incestuous nature of the blogging industry, Nick Denton is an investor in Curbed).

As for what this change means for Gridskipper—and me—I can only speculate beyond some statements from Steele to Media Bistro:

“The honest answer is that Gawker ran the site on a large editorial budget and we don’t have that,” Steele said. “We’re going to investigate working with as many of the current writers as possible.”

Hopefully that will include me.

When I worked as a full-time, permanent employee, merger and acquisition stories begot a slew of office gossip. This incident is just one more example of how the Internet isn’t that different from the real business world after all.

A new wife and a new job

Two pieces of exciting news ’round these parts:

• I got married a few weeks ago and then had a fantastic honeymoon in Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris (hence the dearth of posts recently).
• I am now a correspondent for Gridskipper, “the decadent urban travel guide; scouring the globe for chic hotels, hot restaurants, sweet nightlife, and pretty people.” It’s published by Gawker Media (the same folks who bring you Wonkette, Lifehacker, and a slew of other popular blogs). I just submitted my first post (on DC’s independent coffee shops). It should be online in the next few days.

After pulling an all-nighter, I started seeing things—namely Marion Barry—and ended up on Wonkette

Some work came in late Wednesday that needed an immediate turnaround; I didn’t finish it until 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Typically I follow up all-nighters with a quality nap, but I had another job that day: jury duty. Thankfully I was dismissed within a few hours.

On my way home, however, I had an encounter that lead to a pro bono writing gig—for Wonkette (it’s the last item):

Wonkette—Wonk’d

I got out of jury duty Thursday [10/19] and was walking to the Judiciary Square Metro stop when a 50-something Asian businessman turned to me and said “Isn’t that the mayor?” I looked in the direction in which he was nodding, expecting to see a bald head and bow tie. Better—Marion Barry himself, clad in a suit, was sitting on a wall. That led to this exchange:

Asian businessman: What do you think he’s doing here?
Me: Seeing how there are a slew of courts around here, I can think of many reasons.
AB: Didn’t he get busted with a hooker and then claim he had a sex addiction?
Me: I think so.
AB: But we’re all addicted to sex. Some of us can just handle it better than others.