Gawker Loses its Investigative Reporter to Yahoo

John Cook jumps ship

It’s apparently not an elaborate meta-media April Fool’s joke: John Cook, Gawker’s well-regarded investigative reporter, is jumping ship for Yahoo News, or as Gawker Media chief Nick Denton called it, the “maw of Yahoo.” There, Cook’s title will be “senior national reporter/blogger.”

For background, there’s coverage here, here and here.

Beyond what it says on the calendar, it’s interesting timing, considering what Denton said after the Huffington Post lost its own investigative editor a week ago:

"All web media outlets suffer from the same dilemma. We all want to take up the torch of real journalism. But that ambition often clashes with the interests of the audience and the economics of web publishing. The readers may think the exposure of corruption in Baghdad or the California mortgage market is a good thing; but they don't click."

More to read:

Gawker Shake-Up: Denton Fires Snyder, Buys Cityfile
Gawker's Weekend Editor Headed to the Village Voice
Exclusive: Richard Rushfield Leaves Gawker

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