It's Oscars day, a good a time as any to do this: Hollywood gossip site Defamer is being merged into Gawker, the company's flagship gossip title. The four-year-old title will continue as Gawker's entertainment column; the movie-industry stories will remain showcased on Defamer.com but the sites will be staffed and managed as one.

Gawker now draws more than 3m visitors a month — four times the audience it had in 2007. More than three-quarters of Gawker's readership is from outside New York. The inclusion of Defamer's Hollywood gossip — following an expansion of political coverage last year and the incorporation of Valleywag — reflects Gawker's evolution into a national gossip site.

In December, Gawker Media sold Consumerist to the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. At the same time we announced we'd had a bid for Defamer and were exploring a sale of the site. Ultimately, the brand was worth more to us — as a section of the Gawker site.

Fortunately, the three Defamer writers have decent employment prospects even amid the great media die-off — a testament to their talents. I'm sure Seth, Stu and Kyle will be disclosing their plans as soon as they can. Seth's post is here.

Defamer will be supervised by Gawker's managing editor Gabriel Snyder. Gabriel was a a reporter on Variety and W magazine's Hollywood correspondent. Gawker's Richard Lawson will be assigned to the Defamer beat. And we are hiring a Hollywood gossip writer. Applications to gabriel@gawker.com.
Any press inquiries to nick@gawker.com — or nicknotned on AIM.

Contact information for this author is not available.