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Nick Douglas termination memo

For those who like nothing better than a little behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue in the blogosphere, the guys over at 10 Zen Monkeys have some more deets on the sudden departure of Nick Douglas from Valleywag — where he was replaced by another guy whose initials are N.D., and whose name rhymes with Nick Denton (for an earlier installment of the Nick Douglas saga, scroll down a few posts).

According to a memo from Gawker exec Lockhart Steele (is that someone’s real name?) that was posted by Dealbook at the New York Times, Little Nicky was given the axe because he a) refused to stop giving interviews; b) refused to stop acting like he was a big player in the Valley scene; c) refused to stop mouthing off about how he really wanted to get sued, or d) all of the above.

Anytime a writer settles in too closely with the subjects he/she’s writing about, there comes the inevitable tradeoffs: favor trading, and an elevated sense of one’s own importance to the field at hand. Both, to some degree, ended up being the case here. We were also concerned by Nick’s repeated misunderstanding of the purpose of our sites.

Meanwhile, Nick Denton has made up for lost time by taking a few whacks at Federated Media’s John Battelle, as well as InterActive Corp. supremo Barry Diller, who Nick suggests is a) gay (although married) and b) interested in young men. Oh yes, and then there was the wonderful Dave Winer and NakedJen item. So much for cutting down on the sex at Valleywag, Nick.