Revenge Of The Snarked-Upon: Wired‘s Chris Anderson Blasts Gawker

by Joe Coscarelli | 8:04 am, October 29th, 2009

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Wired editor Chris Anderson will not sit idly by while Gawker equates him with Vanity Fair‘s Graydon Carter. With budget cuts and layoffs hitting most titles in the Condé Nast universe, Gawker has reported that both Carter and Anderson — two of the publishing giant’s marquee names — were too busy helping themselves to be present in the office on the days the guillotine fell. Carter was purportedly on a private jet to Bermuda, while the Wired editor-in-chief was “[d]elivering a no doubt gainful lecture for Hewlett Packard in Silicon Valley.”

Not so fast and not true, says the bald-headed tech general Anderson, who angrily took the snark-covered bait delivered by current Valleywag editor Ryan Tate. “But at least all that time away from home and office will help bolster your independent revenue stream,” Tate sniped. “Bet your ex editors wish they had created one of those! When they weren’t picking up the slack for absent co-workers, that is.” Anderson took to his personal Twitter to respond:

Anderson has shown restraint in media drama before, passing on Malcolm Gladwell‘s takedown of his latest book Free (also covered by Tate), but couldn’t resist when the shots he claims are inaccurate came from Gawker, and specifically Tate, who worked for nearly a year at Business 2.0, a now-defunct magazine founded by Anderson. Could this be employee/employer bad blood playing itself out publicly? (UPDATE: Tate clarified to Mediaite that he arrived at the magazine after it was taken over by Time Inc., and if Anderson was still involved, he “certainly” doesn’t remember him.)

Gawker issued an update to their item, writing: “Anderson tweets he wasn’t in the office on firing day with his shell-shocked staff because he was on a ‘sales call’ for Wired at HP. More sales calls are a good thing — on different days.” But that wasn’t enough:

Then, it was Gawker’s managing editor Gabriel Snyder eager to egg on Anderson:

And Anderson shot back:

One more folks!

Certainly, a Twitter battle for the ages, not to mention Gawker’s bread and butter. Let’s hope Anderson realizes soon that no matter how inaccurate the reporting, he’s the one who looks like a punk as he continues to validate Gawker’s underdog, men-of-the-people status — something they outgrew long ago.

But as long as The Man keeps fighting back, all the while banking on speeches and avoiding layoffs, Gawker appears to be the scrappy one worth rooting for.

Business 2.0, Chris Anderson, Conde Nast, Gabriel Snyder, Gawker, Graydon Carter, Layoffs, Malcolm Gladwell, Ryan Tate, Valleywag, Vanity Fair layoffs, Wired, Wired layoffs

Liz Pope

From the viewpoint of a young public relations professional, Anderson needed to have a crisis communications plan in place to help him better respond to the “bait” from Gawker. Instead, it sounds like he acted based on his emotions, opening himself up to a world of criticism.

In comparison, when one of the local PR agencies in Denver closed their doors, news releases were sent out and the partners were on hand for interviews. They were able to provide information about how they were supporting their employees with severance packages and with job searching. Because they had a plan in place and they were transparent about what was going on with the company, they came across as genuine, concerned about the welfare of their employees and, as a result, were able to maintain their reputations.

Another point that Anderson failed to pick up on is Gawker’s reach and its integration into mainstream media. Anderson responded sporadically, using his Twitter account to blast back. Even though Gawker isn’t the New York Times or the Washington Post, it still holds credibility and pulls in tremendous readership.