The parent company of top video game blog Kotaku is girding for tough economic times.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Gawker Media CEO Nick Denton axed 19 (of 133) employees late Friday. Those getting the chop toiled for blogs apparently judged less competitive by Denton, including Valleywag and Consumerist (a GP favorite).

Kotaku is in no jeopardy, and is actually getting more writers, as Denton explains in a letter strategically leaked on Friday:

You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession... But now the credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector of the economy. Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the worst comes upon us...

 

One reason we're eliminating these positions is to reinforce the teams on the sites with the most commercial appeal—Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker and Gawker—and the properties such as Jezebel, io9, Deadspin and Jalopnik which are poised to join them.