The Gawker Shuffle, Part II: Out With The Alex, In With The Alex

Last week we waxed misty on the departure of Alex Balk from Gawker, and speculated on how Nick Denton might fill that gaping void, in his blog and in all of our hearts. Today comes word from Gawker ME Noah Robischon of a reshuffling in the ranks. First! As we surmised/speculated/may have heard, Wonkette editor Alex Pareene will be returning to the Gawker fold (he began as a guest editor once upon a time — sniff, they grow up so fast!). He will be leaving both Wonkette and D.C., returning to New York to properly inhabit his post. He'll start Monday after next. Meanwhile, over at Wonkette, West Coast editor Ken Layne (formerly of Sploid, which will always be a fun word to say) will be joined by two new writers: Editor John Clarke, Jr. (formerly of Variety) and associate editor Jim Newell (formerly of IvyGate). Clarke will be moving to D.C.; Newell is already there (also we hear that Clarke worked with Mitt Romney on the Salt Lake City Olympics, where the Canadian skaters weren't treated very fairly, until they were). In other news, the Gawker employee who was secretly a commenter has been promoted to Head Commenter/Decider, which will no doubt have repercussions across both sites and beyond.

That's the update. Welcome, Alex Pareene and the Wonkette guys! See you online, where we all dwell, watching, watching, watching.

p.s. Yes, that's Kenneth the Page from "30 Rock." We didn't have any Gawker pics handy and didn't feel like running that old Gawker "G" again so just figured that'd work as well as anything. He sets a standard of employee loyalty to which we should all aspire.