Item! The blogosphere is all aflutter.
(1) Elizabeth Spiers, "snark queen" editor of Nick Denton's New York-based Gawker blog is said to be on (insert Dr. Evil air-quotes) vacation (/air quotes). Jeff Jarvis says:
She has been hanging around New York magazine, getting a co-byline on the Intelligencer this week (imagine if you could hear her voice there — it'd be better than a return to the good old days of the column that really started smart local gossip). She has also been called by various magazines, even Conde Nast magazines (yes, even that one), to freelance.
What makes this notable is that Elizabeth is the first media star really made by weblogs. Others have become stars in their own rights (Glenn, Andrew, et al) but Liz is the first to be making the jump from niche to mass media; she is our Judd sister. Nick Denton discovered her voice on a weblog and together they made Gawker a hit and now she's getting ready to move on up to the East Side. Choire Sicha has been filling in.
Greg Lindsay from WWD dishes more speculation, Gawker weighs in here, and there's a statement on Elizabeth's personal blog here. You still with me? Good.
(2) Jason McCabe Calacanis wants to put the bling in blogs. The serial entrepreneur who created tech publications including Silicon Alley Reporter and Venture Reporter (disclaimer: I'm the former VP of the publishing company he founded, behind both magazines) has been quietly planning to launch his Next Big Thing later this month. His still-in-stealth venture has something to do with B2B weblogs for profit, and creating viable economic micropublishing models for bloggers. If it takes off as planned, someone close to the venture says, he'll have spawned 500 of these sites in three years' time.
(3) Calacanis initiated what amounts to a bidding war for Spiers today, offering her 50% of a new publication product she would edit, a new laptop, paying for her Soho house membership and funding. Can Nick Denton — or any of Spiers' rumored print suitors– top that?
Update: Nick Denton responds.
