Oops. Not twelve hours after I write a column saying that London needs its own Valleywag so, it seems, does San Francisco.

Nick Denton has decided to roll Silicon Valley’s favourite only tech gossip blog and its skeleton staff into Gawker to consolidate pageviews and weather the impending ad revenue storm.

I’m not sure how I feel about Valleywag’s demise (and, however Denton spins it, let’s be honest, it’s a demise). Unlike Gawker which speaks to anyone with an interest in the media industry, Valleywag was never really relevant to non-Valley dwellers. It was just a bit too inside the beltway (if you’ll excuse the geography) and, with a few exceptions, the characters it profiled just weren’t interesting enough to travel.

But that’s a curious point. Why wasn’t it more interesting to non Valley people? Why, when it came from the New-York-based-Brit-owned Gawker stable, was it so introspective? Especially when it’s generally accepted that it was at its best when edited by Denton himself.

Clearly, Denton has already asked those questions and by rolling Valleywag into Gawker, with its Ketel One ads and mainstream media commenters, is trying to force Owen Thomas to think, if not globally, at least nationally. But is a roll-in the right solution? I’m not convinced.

Why not leave Valleywag where it is but change the tone to one more similar to Gawker, which is firmly rooted in New York but realises that for many the location is aspirational rather geographical? Gossip the Valley to the world, but also the world to the Valley and tap in to the hundreds of thousands of people outside of Northern California who work in – or are just interested in – the technology industry. That’s a hell of an audience.

(But, whatever they do, for fuck’s sake, why not hire someone who can write a decent joke? Gawker is snarky; Valleywag is just a gang of dorks dressed up as bullies for Halloween.)

I was going to write more on this, but it’s just hit me how little I care about whether Valleywag lives or dies. Which I suppose is exactly the problem. I really want to care. And I should. But I just don’t. I will however be hitting refresh at least a dozen times a day on the first day of Gawkerwag, when the New York media commenter elite suddenly finds their daily snark fix interrupted by stories about Jason Calacanis’ dogs.

Now that will be funny.

Until then, I guess I’m going to have to keep getting my laughs from reading Mashable.

…

(By the way, does anyone else find it amusing the Nick Denton’s personal site is a .org? He’s nothing if not self-aware.)