Massive Gawker Turnover Continues Unabated

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

The constant churn of employees at New York media website Gawker has claimed another victim: Maggie Shnayerson, hired in September of 2007 to fill the media reporter role vacated by Doree Shafrir, has been let go, making her approximately the 1,450th employee to have joined or left that site since November. Shnayerson has been released due to poor numbers: An e-mail from Gawker Media overlord Nick Denton put it this way: "I'm afraid your stories are not performing well enough on Gawker, and I don't see how you're going to turn that around. Last month, you got about 400,000 pageviews; this month you're at 160,000; even taking into account your break, that's still far from satisfactory. You should be doing some 670,000 views a month to justify your advance. You're a good writer, and your stories are fine; you just seem to wrestle with them for longer than we can afford. I don't think you're suited to the pace of Gawker." Shnayerson is, in fact, a fine writer, and would be a welcome addition to any news organization's staff. Denton was unavailable for comment.

DISCLOSURE: This writer is a huge, huge fan of Ms. Shnayerson and, while at Gawker, urged that she be hired. He also is one of the few people who can call her "Mags" and live.

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