On Friday, Nov. 30, readers of an item on Gawker.com which was nominally about author and editor Keith Gessen were told that the Web site’s managing editor, Choire Sicha, and editor Emily Gould were quitting.
On Monday, Dec. 3, nightlife editor Josh Stein told The Media Mob, he’ll do the same.
“The reasons I’m quitting are kind of personal,” he told Media Mob on Sunday night. “It has nothing to do with the job. I’m actually really happy with the job.”
He said he told Noah Robischon, who is the managing editor of several sites including Gawker that are part of the Gawker Media Group, on Friday that he planned to quit at the end of the month. He said he hasn’t spoken to Gawker media founder and owner Nick Denton about it.
When asked if the Sicha-Gould announcement had anything to do with his timing, he said “Yeah, certainly.”
“I really, really enjoy working with Choire,” he said. “He taught me a lot, and Emily as well. They taught me a lot about blogging, which I wasn’t very good at when I started.”
He’ll be spending the month of January in London with a “lady” he said he would “make a go of it” with. When he returns, he said he’ll hope to pick up a career in freelancing. He said he’s currently working on pieces for Page Six Magazine and Out, and that he has “some major” work in the pipeline that he couldn’t discuss.
Maggie Shnayerson, who started on Sept. 24, is now the longest-serving editor at Gawker. She’ll be working with Alex Pareene and reporter Sheila McClear.
