Mr. Pareene, 24, will be a blogger for Salon's War Room blog. He was hired by former Observer staffer and current Salon political guy, Steve Kornacki.

"They wanted me and they gave me a good offer and seemed really excited to have me," said Mr. Pareene. "I've been at Gawker for a couple years and at Gawker Media for five years now."

John Cook is leaving Gawker to join Yahoo, which leaves two holes in their masthead. Gawker editor in chief Remy Stern told us that night editor--and Thursday Styles star!--Maureen O'Connor would be joining the staff full time, and he'll be looking for a hire or two to stabilize the ranks.

"We very much wanted Alex to stay and did what we could to convince him, but I think after four years as part of the Gawker machine he was ready for a change," said Mr. Stern.

"It's exciting," said Mr. Pareene. "It took me a while to figure this out. It's sort of terrifying to do something different. It'll be fun."