Owen Thomas (left), who has been digging up gossip in Silicon Valley for the past couple of years for Valleywag.com, is jumping to NBC to apparently work on a Web site it is building for the Valley, TechCrunch reports. Valleywag, a unit of Gawker Media, plans to replace Thomas with Ryan Tate (right), now the night editor at Gawker.

The move comes a few months after Valleywag cut its work force and it became a part of Gawker.com rather than having its own independent presence.

Gawker founder Nick Denton told TechCrunch: “Owen has a reputation as a fearsome gossip writer. What’s less known is his penchant for management. It sounds like this NBC job will give him the responsibility he’s been craving — and take him out of the Valleywag firing line!”

Tate’s promotion means there’s a job opening at Gawker media, and Denton is accepting applications from people who like to work nights. (Photo credits: Gawker Media)