The Blog DoggerLayoffs hit blogosphere

Gawker Media laid off 19 employees. Is the blogosphere fading or is something else amiss?

You know all the layoffs at newspapers? Well the economy has tightened so much those layoffs have made it into the blogosphere—sort of.

Gawker Media, which publishes 15 blogs, fired 19 of its 133 editorial employees last week and suspended bonuses for remaining staff. Gawker owned blogs include Valleywag, Defamer, Deadspin and, of course, Gawker.

The company’s owner and publisher, Nick Denton, not only e-mailed his plans to employees but also posted them online for the world to see.

“The news about the job and bonus cuts will be demoralizing,” Denton wrote. “The golden age of the blog is over, people will say. Gawker Media is behaving like those big media companies that we mock so easily.”