In terms of New York City-centric media superstars, no one seems to have the beat covered better than Gawker. The infamous blog covers everything from New York social scenesters to business busts in the media world.

Gawker attracts many readers thanks to its very sharp tongue. The site is snarky without being tactless, and is often genuinely funny. Perhaps to no surprise, Choire Sicha, Gawker’s managing editor, is equally rambunctious and, like the site, a bit smarter than he lets on.

“People who live or work in New York have to pay attention to certain power structures,” Sicha says, describing his take on Gawker’s beat. “They are interested in the way money works in New York. … I think it’s really frivolous. Half the stuff on the site in a day is about shoes and hair and the way people look.”

Despite Sicha’s seemingly dismissive attitude, Gawker has built a reputation in its mere five years of existence as one of New York’s more entertaining online media sources. “You want to know the three things it takes to have a good blog?” Sicha asks. “A good headline. No rambling. And don’t be funny if there’s nothing funny to say.”

Sicha found himself on the path to blogging after starting his own site. “I was just some nerdy, sweaty guy in an apartment,” he says, laughing.

The Evanston, Ill., native came to New York and worked as a paralegal and an office temp, keeping up his own blog in his spare time. He found an audience through Gawker’s first editor, Elizabeth Spiers. Sicha began adapting his blog style to fit more with hers so she would find it funny and link back to it. Sicha soon found himself writing for Gawker’s sibling adult-content blog, Fleshbot. After Spiers left Gawker in 2004, he took the post of Gawker managing editor.

The gig eventually led to a stint at the New York Observer, a job Sicha seems to have relished. “Working at a weekly paper is amazing,” he says, “because you get two days off. It was awesome. I miss news print – the front page, the thrill of seeing your byline.”

But Sicha seems to be content with his recent return to Gawker. “Getting to work three days on a story is nice, but there’s something about being able to publish now, now, now. There are three editors at Gawker, and they’re throwing copy at me every few minutes. It’s trainwreck-y, unnerving and exhausting. And it’s more what I like.”

Sicha also sees some fundamental differences between print and blogs that go beyond instant access. “In print, competition is what you need,” he observes. “On the web, we stick together. Even though we spar with other blogs like Radar or Jossip, the more the better.”

Despite some of the “frivolity” of the site’s posts, Sicha still views Gawker as a legitimate news outlet. Certain stories, like the recent layoffs at MTV, were chronicled in depth by Gawker while largely ignored by many traditional media sources, he says.

“We’re not much different than any other publication,” Sicha says. “In essence, half of what we do is commentary and half of what we do is reported news – ‘news-lite.’”