<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, gizmodo.com]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, gizmodo.com]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/gizmodocom http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/gizmodocom <![CDATA[The Twitterati Apologize for Taking Steroids Offshore]]> New York has a fancy matrix graphic in which it pretends to identify which Twitterers are insipid or insightful. Oh, New York: Even Twitter's insights are insipid. Today's banalities:

BusinessWeek writer Spencer Ante offshored.

Revision3 videoblogger Veronica Belmont revealed her musical tastes.

Domestic tyrant Martha Stewart apologized.

Gizmodo blogger Matt Buchanan pumped himself up.

CNET video host Natali Del Conte revealed her superhero fetish.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

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<![CDATA[Do You Cry, or Do You Just Twitter?]]> Blue? Just read Twitter, and you'll feel better. Jimmy Fallon's producer cried from fatigue. So did a Gizmodo blogger. An ABC news guy's biggest accomplishment? Going to the DMV. The sad life of Twitteronians:

Inhuman, caffeine-fueled Gizmodo blogging machine Matt Buchanan broke down.

ABC's John Berman resisted the urge to dance.

Sun Myung Moon employee Christina Bellantoni got told by a Congressional aide.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon producer Gavin Purcell was very, very tired.

Formerly important editorial person Bonnie Fuller failed at Twitter. (140 characters max, Bonnie — but don't worry, even Google's CEO got that wrong.)

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please — or email us your favorite tweets.

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<![CDATA[Shhh! I'm reading about the keynote!]]> The most telling photo from Gizmodo's live coverage at Apple's Cupertino product launch event today. I promise you this: If Apple PR ever goofs and lets Valleywag into a freaking Steve Jobs keynote, I'll keep my MacBook closed, turn off Twitter, and pay attention to The Man. Can you think of a better caption for this photo? Leave it in the comments. The best one will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: WagCurious, for "You must be this tall to ride Alex Albrecht." (Photo by Gizmodo)

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<![CDATA[Engadget editor admits to creating "Boycott Gizmodo" site]]> Know that old saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"? Former Engadget editor Ryan Block has put it into practice by tapping former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam — now the site's editorial director — to help advise them on their new gadget startup gdgt. In doing so, Block has ended — or at least set aside — a long-term gadget-blog rivalry which frothed with animosity. (Gizmodo, like Valleywag, is published by Gawker Media.) At times, the competition got dirty — like the time Block created an anonymous blog slamming Lam for a post about the iPhone.

Block has since confessed to the stunt. In a post on Lam's hire, Block says "Brian Lam and I are actually pals outside of work — have been for years." But back in 2006, a tipster told Valleywag, Block created a blog called Boycott Gizmodo! and a Digg account with the same name that he used to promote blog's one and only post to Digg's front page. "The time has come to Boycott Gizmodo," reads the post. "Not only did Brian Lam and Gizmodo purposefully deceive long standing readers such as myself about the iPhone, they did a terrible job of covering their tracks." (Lam's post promised readers news about an "iPhone" device on a Friday, before the launch of the actual device — and then, on a Monday, revealed that Cisco owned a trademark on the term, long attached to speculation about an Apple cell phone, and had released an iPhone-branded product. The companies long since settled the matter, giving Apple rights to the iPhone name)

We asked Block if he was the author of the blog. In response, Block told us, "Brian and I have always been friends who knew where to draw the line." Block also just published a confessional blog post titled "Bygones and rivalries," in which he confessed to authoring the "Boycott Gizmodo!" blog. He also offered another anecdote from a rivalry we're all going to miss.

Of course, it went both ways, too. Gizmodo and a lot of other sites were pulling shenanigans day in and out, with the traded barbs pushing everyone harder, thinning out mistakes which could turn into ammunition. The result being better, faster, more accurate gadget sites, of course, but it’s a little funny, because that stuff all seemed so very serious then. Looking at it now, the storied rivalry retired, it’s almost kind of cute.

There was a line to be drawn, too, and to me that line was where real damage could be done. This May, in fact, that line drew itself right in my inbox when a disgruntled former Gizmodo editor pinged me offering a tidy bounty. The full “back catalog of classified Gizmodo emails, some discussing Engadget,” as well as “access to Gizmodo’s tips account [that'd be where you could get all of Gizmodo's scoops, or even turn over their tipsters to the companies they're leaking about]” and the “master list of Gizmodo online sources, which is a great aid.” Without hesitation, I turned this person (and any data they could make use of) over to Brian and owner of Gizmodo/Gawker Media, Nick Denton, for them to deal with as they saw fit.

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<![CDATA[With Engadget nemesis gone, Gizmodo editor soft-retires]]> After two years at the helm of the gadget blog, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam has gotten himself kicked upstairs. The former Wired staffer will now focus on live event coverage as an assistant managing editor for our mutual parent company, Gawker Media. Lam will also retain an "editorial director" title at Gizmodo — I'm not sure what that means except someone's been reading too many Condé Nast mastheads. Lam became a gadget-geek cult hero for his aggressive competition with former Engadget editor Ryan Block, who split last month to launch a startup called GDGT. (Lam's even helping Block out as an advisor.) Here's an excerpt of the announcement from Gawker's internal mailing list.

Significant staffing changes at Gizmodo to announce today: Jason Chen is now the editor of Gizmodo. Brian Lam is becoming the site's editorial director as well as an assistant managing editor of Gawker Media focusing on live events. Brian will still spend the majority of his time overseeing Gizmodo, only now he will dedicate more of his time to expanding Gizmodo's presence through features, reader meet-ups, and a curated gadget pop-up store among other projects. Jason, who has always been Brian's right-hand ninja assassin and is easily one of the top pageview earners in the entire network, will take over the site's day-to-day operations. As AME, Brian will focus on organizing and running live events coverage across the network. Brian's mastery of field work (video, photo and live blogging) has surpassed my own. Spreading this knowledge to other editors in the network will benefit everyone, and expand the amount of live events coverage overall. Congrats to both.

(Photo by Brian Solis)

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<![CDATA[Ad network fad hits music blogs]]> MP3 blog like Peter Rojas's RCRD LBL attract "tastemakers who wield considerable influence over their peers" reports Fortune. Only they don't attract very many of them. For example, Thefader.com has 93,000 monthly uniques, RCRD LBL, 125,000 and Thetripwire.com about 15,000. So what are these small sites with attractive demographics to do? Hire crafty ad sales teams to sell limited, premium inventory to sponsors desperate to reach their "boutique" audience? No!

They're doing what everyone else is doing, throwing their inventory into a big pile and asking someone else to do the work in return for a large cut of the revenues. Jon Cohen and Rob Stone, principals of New York-based Cornerstone Promotion, have created an ad network for the very purpose. We're not surprised many follow this path. It's easy and allows publishers to focus on creating content — which is probably more fun than selling ads. We would be surprised if RCRD LBL's Rojas joins up. His blogfather, Weblogs Inc. founder Jason Calacanis, is a known proponent of going with internal ad sales teams over ad networks, which he describes as "short term and very damaging." Indeed, Fortune reports Rojas is rumored to be going the smart way: releasing a major artist's latest album, sponsored by a single advertiser.

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<![CDATA[Gizmodo vs. Engadget in Wired — the 100-word version]]> The April issue of Wired has a lengthy piece on gadget blogs. Most of the focus is on Gizmodo (disclosure: Valleywag is owned by Gawker Media, parent company to Gizmodo) and the rise of the gadget blogs in influence and reach. It's worth a read, but if you're too busy frantically reloading Engadget and Gizmodo to read the whole thing, we've tagged the high points below.

  • "This is a business where every minute counts," Lam wrote.
  • Like a couple of rival hometown newspapers, Engadget and Gizmodo have seen their competition develop into a full-blown feud, complete with charges of malfeasance and sabotage. Gizmodo's publisher, blogging impresario Nick Denton, has accused Engadget of being "amateurish" and "gullible."
  • [Engadget editor] Ryan Block, for his part, offered only minimal comment for this story: Lam is a former Wired contributor and assistant editor, and Block said he was concerned that Lam's relationship with the magazine would prevent Engadget from getting a "fair shake." He even forbade Engadget employees from talking to me at CES.
  • "They have audience, and they have influence. They are right up there with Walt Mossberg." As a Samsung spokesperson puts it: "Gadget blogs are the future of the world for us."
  • "They have to figure out what they want to be when they grow up," says David Pogue, who reviews technology for The New York Times and reads both blogs regularly. "And they are going to continue to stub their toes along the way."
  • Despite the heated competition, neither site appears to be damaging the other's popularity. Most business battles revolve around a scarce resource — audience or customers or money. But in this case, the battle for readers is not a zero-sum game. "Nothing stops people from going to both," says Jeff Jarvis, media blogger and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. "This is a natural state of media. It's good for everyone."
  • Victories and bragging rights are won in seconds. Lam talks about renting a different apartment so he can be on a FedEx route that receives deliveries before Block.
  • Engadget is cool and straitlaced. (One typically direct headline: "Sprint Announces Massive Layoffs, Store Closings Amid Subscriber Defection.") Gizmodo revels in cheap jokes and hedonism. Its writers regularly proclaim their love of alcohol, marijuana, and Jessica Alba. Las Vegas would seem to be a very dangerous place for them.
  • Around 5 pm, Jason Calacanis — who cofounded Engadget's parent, Weblogs, Inc., and sold it to AOL in October 2005 — inadvertently wanders into Gizmodo territory. Calacanis immediately spouts off: "Fuck Gizmodo. Engadget rules." Then he throws up three fingers twisted into the shape of an E, the Engadget gang sign.

    Calacanis' outburst is a reminder of what really motivates both sites — more than money or prestige, it comes down to a frat-like rivalry, driven by boyish egos and measured in pageviews.

  • Richard Blakeley, a cameraman for Gawker Media and Gizmodo, was armed with a little device called TV-B-Gone. He prowled the floor, extinguishing the demos and displays that are CES' lifeblood. Four days later, however, Lam posted a story titled "Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES," which included a video documenting the escapade.

    Four days after he uploaded the clip, he posted a response to his many critics: "Bloggers and trade journalists, so desperate for a seat at the table with big mainstream publications, have it completely backward ... No matter how much access the companies give us, we won't ever stop being irreverent."

    Not as long as it pays off. The TV-B-Gone video received some 679,000 views by February 22, making it Gizmodo's most popular CES story.

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<![CDATA[Gizmodo, Ars Technica party all night]]> Poor Ars Technica and Gizmodo. The gadget sites invited San Francisco's thirsty class over for some pre-Macworld booze at Harlot in SoMa last night, and the assembled crowd drank the hosted bar dry in 35 minutes flat. I ran into a host of familiar faces there, including a certain Farker who goes by the unforgettable login of "catbutt." So unforgettable that I called him ... well, something else instead. And no, I'm not throwing David Ulevitch the shocker — just a gesture that looks a lot like it. Fake Steve Jobs blogger Dan Lyons, making his Macworld debut, drew a tight bubble of fans around him everywhere he went.



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<![CDATA[Banned cameraman hawks CES press badge]]> Richard Blakeley, the Gawker Media cameraman whose antics for Gizmodo drew widespread attention, is selling his press badge — the last one he'll ever get, he says — for $100 on Craigslist. Why is it a collector's item? Because CES has banned him from attending future events after he filmed himself using a remote control to turn off TV screens on the show floor. (Gizmodo, like Valleywag, is owned by Gawker Media, and Blakeley does video work for both sites.)

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<![CDATA[More CES sanctions against Blakeley]]> Star Wonkette commenter FlakJack listed additional punishments the Consumer Electronics Show people should mete out to Gizmodo's TV-remote prankster. Edited version:

  • No protective sleeve for press room coffee cup.
  • Photo credential only allows you to take pics of booth dudes, not babes.
  • Shocks from a designer Taser anytime you roll your eyes at a vendor's use of jargon.
  • Mandatory lunch with Scoble and Calacanis.

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<![CDATA[Gawker staffer banned from CES, "additional sanctions ... under discussion"]]> blakeley.jpgRichard Blakeley, the scamp behind Gizmodo's TV-turnoff stunt at CES, has been banned from attending the show. Here's the CEA's official response to the Gizmodo TV-B-Gone prank:
We have been informed of inappropriate behavior on the show floor by a credentialed media attendee from the Web site Gizmodo, owned by Gawker Media. Specifically, the Gizmodo staffer interfered with the exhibitor booth operations of numerous companies, including disrupting at least one press event. The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion.

The employee in question, Richard Blakeley, is clearly credited, so it shouldn't be difficult to "identify" him, though both Portfolio and Silicon Alley Insider failed to get that essential detail right. Blakeley tells us that he has received "no notice at all" from CES about the banning. Though, seeing as how CES is over, we've got a year for this to all blow over. And Blakeley has a year to think up another stunt.

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<![CDATA[How to suck up to the consumer electronics industry]]> Self-styled serious bloggers are tripping over each other to distance themselves from Gizmodo's childishly funny prank at CES, in which Gawker Media class clown Richard Blakeley turned off entire banks of TV displays with a remote control. The critics advocate for more maturity and morality, in posts titled "douche" and "crap." The bloggers' real concern is that they'll lose their recently acquired just-like-old-media access to PR dog-and-pony shows and the snack room at CES. It used to be bloggers bragged about not needing those things, and not being corrupted by them. The guy at TechCrunch's gadget blog weighs in: "Will Denton's kids grow up? Absolutely." Then he posts a photo of a douche box. When I grow up, I want to be just like him.

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<![CDATA[CNET editor proves there's no difference between "press" and "blogger"]]> Rafe NeedlemanWhat's the difference between a blogger and a journalist? Nothing, says CNET's Rafe Needleman. But he's concerned that Gizmodo's sophomoric prank, using a TV remote control to turn off video screens at the CES 2008 gadgetfest, will get bloggers disinvited to the event next year. After all, CES only grudgingly started accrediting bloggers to the show. The only problem with Needleman's thesis?

Gizmodo attended the event — and pulled their silly stunt — with full press credentials, not second-class blogger badges. And people say the difference between journalists and bloggers is that bloggers don't factcheck. Needleman is right: There is no difference.

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<![CDATA[Fake quote a real honor for Gizmodo editor]]> What a Christmas present: Gizmodo editor Brian Lam has been fake-quoted by The Onion. Paul Boutin, our very special correspondent, still talks about the day — five years ago, people — that he got the Onion treatment. And yes, I'm jealous. (Disclosure: Gawker Media publishes both Valleywag and Gizmodo, which means I get to rag on Lam about this at staff meetings.)

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