two-twenty

media empire tightens grip on trendy terminology

In a masterstroke of media savvy, weblog Gawker today rendered 90% of its online competition irrelevant. By releasing a list of words deemed no longer "hott" in '04, the site at once established an easily understandable measuring stick by which other sites may be gauged. Indeed, the new criteria could also affect an assortment of newspaper columns, magazines, media personalities, Lower East Side conversations, and VH1.

Among the newly banned words: "snarky", "kutcher", "metrosexual", and "hipster". Analysts assure two-twenty that the vast majority of Manhattan-based media will not be able to recover from this gutting of their lexicon. However, to ensure the site's place at the top of 2004's media heap, Gawker also specifically allowed several terms, including "hilton", "tina brown", and "blogs".

A Memo from Gawker's Ombudsman | um, Gawker