BlogMedia Leaving Blog Network Space
Matt Craven has just announced in The Blog Herald that BlogMedia Inc is rebadging itself, Problogging Inc and effectively selling off its blog network brick by brick. It’s unclear right now whether they mean to sell The Blog Herald, Blog Network Watch and Blog Network List as well.
On their other site, Problogging.com, Matt writes in more detail :
“As many of you have noted over the past few weeks, we’ve slowly been divesting ourselves of much of our blog network. This is part of a deliberate strategy to move beyond the “wide & deep†network strategy that we have employed in the past in order to refocus our efforts on our consulting business and expand more into services for professional bloggers, including directly consulting in that arena.”
As I’ve written here many times, I believe the blog network concept was over-egged because Weblogs Inc was seen as a network rather than two superstar tech websites. The charge out of this space is becoming more like a stampede. As I write, Steve Rubel is asking whether Weblogs Inc itself will survive within AOL now that Jason Calacanis has left.
From Syntagma Media’s point of view, we have not been a blog network for quite a while, converting to a publisher of Network Magazines some months ago. We look forward to a buoyant future.
Umm, no, that’s not what I’m saying.
I’ll respond in a separate post.
I believe that b5, WIN, Gawker, and others are doing a damn fine job at being a blog network.
And your network, regardless of how you choose to brand it - is a blog network
Matt
By Matt Craven on November 25th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Not if I brand it something else, Matt.
My choice.
I look forward to your post.
By John Evans on November 25th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Matt, I’m rather amused by you’re stubbornness to accept Syntagma Media as anything other than a blog network. Blog networks were just a collection of recriprocally linked websites before they were branded as blog networks. And they will undergo many more incarnations before the concept is twisted beyond recognizable form.
By Ty West on November 26th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Absolutely right, Ty. Do we still call cars, horseless carriages?
By John Evans on November 26th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
John is welcome to brand his company/network however he chooses. However, in the end game, he’s running a blog network - a company consisting of a network made up of blogs.
You can call it a web network magazine - or you can call it a widget for all I care - it’s still a blog network..
Matt
By Matt Craven on November 26th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Hmmm, there’s something a bit ossified about that statement, Matt. We surely haven’t reached the fossilized stage yet?
By John Evans on November 26th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Oh, and Matt, you’ve left out the metacontent layer. Doesn’t that change the whole nature of the beast?
By John Evans on November 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Not really.
Matt
By Matt Craven on November 26th, 2006 at 11:30 pm