Torontoist, a Canadian branch in the Gothamist empire, is closing down.

At the end of this month, I will be stepping down as Torontoist’s Editor-in-Chief. I’ve loved everything about this job since I started it, and my decision to leave was not an easy one to make, but it is, ultimately, the right one at the right time for the right reasons. Gothamist has decided, as a result of both my resignation and the recession, to close Torontoist on January 1, 2009 and concentrate on their more lucrative American sites. That decision is the right one, too: as it exists now, Torontoist can barely be sustained, let alone developed, and it has survived and thrived as long as it has, in spite of modest means, largely because of the ceaseless hard work of that aforementioned collective.

Torontoist was actually pretty funny a lot of the time. And they also provided a paid blog outlet for Christopher Bird*, who is always a delight. It sounds like Seattlest is okay, but I'm willing to bet this won't be the last paid blogger collapse of 2008.

*And if you follow that last link to Bird's Mightygodking website, you will find a link to a blog named Way to Suck That Dick!, which is a critique of amateur porn that has been posted on the Internet. It's pretty funny and also creepy, which is what I like to call a "difecta."