Nick Denton, who I consider a close friend is a genius. His company, Gawker Media, goes through an upheaval; he lays of some bloggers, and decides to cut loose two of his below average blogs – Sploid and Screenhead. And yet, this stinky bit of news turns into a love letter, no less one published in The New York Times. (Doesn’t it remind you of Paris Hilton, who appears in a self-starred skin flick, and becomes the hottest thing, well since Paris Hilton.)

Given that the traditional media is not making any interesting news, one cannot blame the writer. Though, the headline, A Blog Mogul Turns Bearish, is appropriate for a blog post, preferably published by one of Nick’s many properties. Did NYTimes get spun? Of course! Heather Green skims through the article and concludes, “I will vote for thinking that Denton is down on funding blogs, since Carr writes a business column.” Well…. as I said Nick is a genius!

Update: Erick over at Business 2 Blog, crunches the number on Denton’s Gawker Empire, and figures that the company is pulling it close to about $3.6 million a year at the very least – and if not next News Corp., it is still a tidy business.