Business 2.0

Who Shot Valleywag? Gossip Bloggers Thomas (Outgoing) and Tate (Incoming) Speak!

Kara Swisher in News on May 1, 2009 at 9:20 pm PT

Was it Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in Fraiche Yogurt with a Macbook Air? Or Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the streets of San Francisco with a Model S? Or, most likely of all, Marissa Mayer of Google in the penthouse with a Manolo Blahnik spiked heel? For all the invective this trio has taken from him, all would certainly be prime suspects if some nefarious fate befell Valleywag’s always controversial gossip blogger, Owen Thomas. Actually, the truth is a little more mundane: The self-described “scourge of [Silicon] Valley” is moving onto another digital job as head of NBC Universal’s new Bay Area Web site, whose motto is “Locals Only.” Deceptively fresh-faced Ryan Tate is his replacement. Here are Thomas’s last words on the controversial gossip site.

One Time Inc. Casualty: Digital Boss Ned Desmond

Peter Kafka in Media on October 30, 2008 at 1:51 pm PT

Time Inc. still hasn’t figured out exactly how many people the magazine publisher will fire this fall — the 600 number reported earlier this week, we’re told, is a guesstimate. In the meantime there are plenty of high-level org chart changes, like the departure of Ned Desmond, a longtime Time Inc. vet who was most recent title was President of Time Inc. Interactive. Click through to read Time Inc. boss Ann Moore’s goodbye memo.