Who's Gawking at the Spin Industry?

Last month, Jack Flack worried that reporter Hamilton Nolan might suffer from the bends by moving directly from the constrictive depths of PRWeek to the lawless stratosphere of Gawker, effectively jumping from one extreme of the news eco-system to the other in a single hop.

PRWeek is the spin industry's agency-centric trade mag. It employs bright people and has become far newsier in recent years. But given its subscriber base, it's still obliged to take a fairly "supportive" view of anything that might generate a 1% increase in billable hours. (For instance, lobbying and spin efforts are often euphemistically referred to as "outreach," as in the headline, "Cable industry's outreach halts FCC bid for additional control.")

Gawker, on the other hand, is Gawker, and Nolan's transition would seem fairly radical.

Based on his early posts, Nolan will likely focus primarily on media. But also assume he has a thick file of notes on the PR industry that were not particularly appropriate for PRWeek, but that will make nice Gawkian fodder in the months ahead. In fact, Nolan seems a bit fed-up with all the flackery he ingested in his old job, and look for him to train a red laser dot on the PR industry's forehead from time to time.

The first indication? Nolan took a big whack last week at agency wallah Richard Edelman. The ubiquitous Edelman couldn't resist firing back, and an ongoing "dialogue" seems likely.

Gawker vs. Edelman?

Wow, who do you cheer for in that fight?

Either way, spin watchers of all varieties will likely find it hard to resist watching.