Gawker says goodbye to Wonkette, Gridskipper, Idolator

Publisher Nick Denton announced this morning that he had unloaded three of Gawker Media's 15 blogs before the "cold wind"  from a chilling economy  blows into town (SAI).   Travel and music blogs Gridskipper and Idolator are being passed along, along with Wonkette, the now almost-venerable 4-year-old political gossip blog that made its original editor, Ana Marie Cox, an online star--and helped establish the Gawker brand.

"The dozen sites that remain represent some 97% [of] our 228m pageviews per month, and an even higher proportion of our growth and advertising revenue," wrote Denton in an e-mail to his staff.

Denton also said that he thought the new owners might be better-equipped to sell ads in those niches--which seems to imply that selling ads in those niches is not all that easy (since he can't do it).

Is this the first big sign that the sub-prime mortgage freeze is hitting the blogosphere?  Sheesh, and just in time for summer.