Gabriel Snyder – formerly Gawker’s editor in chief and briefly the executive editor of Newsweek‘s digital initiatives – announced via Twitter this morning that he will be joining The Atlantic Wire as its new editor. The site describes itself as an outlet that “tracks the biggest opinions and debates as they happen” across a variety of platforms.

Wow. Well this is interesting and surprising news. Gawker head Nick Denton just sent out this memo to staff announcing that Gawker media is acquiring Cityfile, the New York news/gossip site founded by Remy Stern. Perhaps even more surprising (shocking?) is the news that Gawker editor-in-chief Gabriel Snyder will departing and Stern will be taking his place (update: in his memo, below, Snyder says he was “canned”). Both memos after the jump.

Gawker’s Ryan Tate provides a tough-but-fair portrayal of Tina Brown. According to Tate, she is very much living in an anachronistic version of New York: ridiculous amounts of money unwisely spent, Sex in the City as pastiche, and people using fax machines to exchange content. No, that is not hyperbole – according to Tate, Tina Brown can read her website via fax while traveling overseas! Update: Gawker Media owner Nick Denton defends Brown in the comments section of the original post.

Back on January 13^th, Valleywag, the Silicon Valley subsidiary of Gawker Media, cut the ribbon on a “scavenger hunt” for information about the Apple Tablet, which led to Apple’s rather predictable response of sending Gawker a cease-and-desist letter. As the rumored release date of the Apple Tablet nears (January 27^th, according to numerous sources), so too, it would seem, does the end of Nick Denton’s mad quest to make Steve Jobs get serious about their relationship and sue him already. It promises to be interesting.

Nothing aids the launch of a new website like a little bit of controversy! After being interviewed by Business Insider about the launch of his new site, Andrew Breitbart took to the webs with complaints of being misquoted and proceeded to accuse Business Insider of merely being a front for Gawker. We untangle it all after the jump.

Newspapers are dying, magazines are dying: this is the story of 2009 where the media is concerned. However, the future of media, such as it is, does not look quite so dim. Or dim at all, really. Obviously, the brave new media world that we are slowly moving into (some at a quicker pace than others!) will look entirely different in twelve months’ time, likely in large part due to the efforts of the folks we listed on our online editors of the year poll. So who gets the final nod? Our picks below: feel free to add yours in the comments section.

Last week, Gawker announced that Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis had won its “douche of the decade” poll. The post in question also initially called Francis a “rapist” — leading him to threaten to sue Gawker. At the time, some observers wondered how serious the threat was. When Mediaite contacted Francis, we received a response from his publicist to the effect that he still plans on suing, and that the suit will be filed on Monday:

When Gawker brought in the coming end of the decade by running a “douche of the decade” poll, the winner, Girls Gone Wild honcho Joe Francis, was not pleased. He didn’t especially object to the “douche” label, but to another, more loaded word they used to describe him: rapist. Francis’ back-and-forth with Gawker’s legal department is revealing in many ways, and raises the question of what, if anything, the gossip site can’t get away with:

If 2009 was a tough year for magazines and newspapers — and boy, was it ever — it was a bang-up year for the editors of the blogs listed here. Now we are asking you, our loyal, smart, and attractive readers to share your thoughts on who had the biggest year in the Online Editor category:

When Gawker reported that Wired boss Chris Anderson was too busy promoting his book to be present on layoff day, the tech editor took to his Twitter to defend himself. But Anderson angrily taking the bait of his ex-employee is exactly what Ryan Tate and Gawker want.

While Gawker Media has plenty of high-profile women — Anna Holmes, Gina Trapani, Lux Alpatrom, Analee Newitz — it’s gotten some flack for a while now for having a chick-free masthead at its flagship site, Gawker.com. The site that launched such well-known bloggers as Elizabeth Spiers, Jessica Coen and Emily Gould saw its last female editor in December 2008 with the departure of Sheila McClear. Since then it’s been all-male all the time, to the frustration of many readers, watchers, former editors and boyfriends of former editors.

Business Insider announced Friday that they had “alleged proof” that the Balloon Boy story was a hoax after being contacted by a “Denver-area student who claims to have worked with Falcon’s father.” The student wanted to sell his story for $5-8000. Apparently Gawker jumped at the offer, because yesterday they published their own exclusive. So how much did Gawker pay for the exclusive?

In some ways the story of McKinsey evaluations at Condé Nast is the perfect story. All summer long it’s been like watching a train wreck in the best way: We know the end is going to be gruesome, but we’re waiting with bated breath to see just how just how gruesome, just how far the blood will splatter, just how deep editorial budgets will be cut. With the end in sight, the latest round of odds-making and gossip-mongering.

Have you seen Gawker’s ‘McSteamy, His Wife and a Fallen Beauty Queen’s Naked Threesome‘ sex video yet? The post, which went up yesterday afternoon has currently clocked 1,375,051 views. It’s Gawker’s most-viewed post this year. Last month Nick Denton reinstated traffic bonuses. So who’s cashing in?

At the end of last week, Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira wrote a profile of a niche consultant — a “generational guru” — who teaches clients to communicate with members of different generations. Later that day, Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan picked up the story, snarked it down, added a few links — one at the top, one at the bottom — and posted it. Business as usual, right? Wrong.