Wonkette Editor Jim Newell To Replace Alex Pareene As Gawker Political Editor

Well, this will do something to silence those who complained that Gawker would not survive after the major staff rearrangement earlier this year. After it’s politics editor Alex Pareene left for Salon last month, Gawker media has hired Wonkette editor Jim Newell to replace him; or, as Newell put it: “After replacing Alex Pareene at Wonkette in 2007, I will now replace… Alex Pareene… at Gawker’s politics slot, which he left very recently. As long as I keep blatantly copying his style, I should have steady employment for life, as he is very talented.”

It’s a fairly foolproof move for Gawker, who lost Newell and company in 2008 when Wonkette became independent of Gawker Media. Newell has built up a following over at Wonkette and during his tenure, the blog won a 2008 Weblog award for best liberal blog and received other awards from Vanity Fair and the Bloggies.

Newell told Mediaite that he was “excited to be trying something new! Even though I will basically write about the same stuff, in my same voice, although maybe without going on so many absurd, made-up tangents. And I’m looking forward to working with the latest 50,000-person staff over there! Hopefully we will all be great friends, but over the Internet, since I’m choosing to stay in Washington D.C. for some reason.”

Wonkette had its own mini-exodus early last year as editors Sara K. Smith and Juli Weiner moved on to motherhood and Vanity Fair, respectively. In the wake of Newell’s expected departure, the blog now relies upon managing editor Ken Layne, intern Riley Waggaman, and an array of contributors that drop in at different times during the week.

Newell’s tearjerking goodbye is here, and, in homage, here is my favorite paragraph of creative writing from Newell’s time at Wonkette, describing his experience at a Tea Party rap concert:

There was a rapper, too! He rapped about taxes and saving the country and Freedom. When your editor asked wingnut expert Dave Weigel, who was of course at this thing and furiously scribbling his little notepad notes like a nerd, whether we were actually witnessing a conservative rapper doing a conservative rap song before a crowd of predominantly elderly white people, he said, “Yeah, but this isn’t his best song.” Man, Weigel needs to get a new beat.

[Photo via Mediabistro]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.