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We’ve sold The Blog Herald

We’ve sold The Blog Herald

It was just ten months ago that we acquired The Blog Herald from Duncan Riley, the original founder. And now we’ve closed a deal to sell The Blog Herald to an undisclosed buyer.

It’s with a whole bag of mixed feelings that I find myself writing this post. Many of you have noticed over the last few months that we’ve been working on refocusing our company. Our core business has always been the consulting work that we’ve been doing since 1994 in one form or another. We also found ourselves not enjoying the blog network business as much as we used to do.. and with a hot market right now for existing blogs – it looked like a good time to divest ourselves of some of our sites.

This morning, for example, we finalized the sale of Blog Network Watch and BloggerJobs and a few other remaining blogs as well.

But it was never our intention to sell The Blog Herald…

That was before we received inquiries from more than six companies in a short period of time. We had enlisted the help of David Krug to negotiate a sale. We quickly narrowed the bidding down to two firms.. Finally, last week while at my parents’ house, we signed the contract to sell The Blog Herald…

The more that we had thought about it – the more it made sense as a part of our efforts to refocus our company. We were wanting to focus more on the consulting end of blogging – we saw gaps in the area of blogging services that we believed that we could fill – and we knew that we enjoyed doing regular podcasts. And owning the Blog Herald was a time constraint on the things that we really wanted to…

The new owners have chosen to remain undisclosed for the time being. I do hope that they announce themselves publicly in the near future so that the sale can be as transparent as I want it to be. I do wish them the best in their endeavors in the coming months here at The Blog Herald.

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The current bloggers have all been asked to stay on for a similar arrangement for the month of December. What actually happens here will be left up to the new owner. I imagine you’ll see some changes over time – but I’ll let them make their own announcement about those.

It has truly been my honor to work with such a talented group of writers – Tony, Jessica, Muhammad, David, Martin, Darnell, Ben, Aaron, and Thord – you guys rock my world.

And for our readers, it’s been an honor and a pleasure.

As for me – I’ll be writing here at The Blog Herald from time to time. You can catch my new podcast at The Pod Herald and read my writings over at ProBlogging.

View Comments (51)
  • Will the new owners talk about anal fissures, or blogging?

    Seriously, congrats to all parties involved. I’d be interested in hearing the core elevator statement from the owners when they’re ready.

  • I, for one, hope our new blogging overlords throw down a new mandate, to be called the “Kukral Initiative”, where every fourth post is about proctological issues, including, but necessarily emphasizing anal fissures. Sometimes topics will range from anal tags to the debate about internal vs. external hemmoroids. No author will be exempt; all authors will be expected to contribute. If not from a personal anecdotes, then at least well researched articles containing at least 3 journal references.

    I’m hoping — but somehow I’m not going to hold my breath. ;)

    t

  • Well I’ve got to ask because it was the first thing I thought of, and that’s regarding the writers. Collectively the number of posts they’ve written (not including Duncan) is about half the amount that you’ve personally written, so would it be fair to assume they’re getting half of the sale amount? If they are, that’s fantastic, but if they’re not, what happens if the new owners fire them all at the end of December without any warning? It seems like they absolutely helped to establish this site’s overall brand and image so, as a reader, it’d be disappointing to me to see them kicked to the wind.

  • And by “half” I meant “third” because my math skills are hazy at this time of night, but of course I’m sure the writers would rather have a third than nothing.

  • Collectively the number of posts they’ve written (not including Duncan) is about half the amount that you’ve personally written, so would it be fair to assume they’re getting half of the sale amount?

    I’d ask if this was any of your business – but you already know the answer to that question.

    Matt

  • Well I’ve got to ask because it was the first thing I thought of, and that’s regarding the writers. Collectively the number of posts they’ve written (not including Duncan) is about half the amount that you’ve personally written, so would it be fair to assume they’re getting half of the sale amount?

    That’s like asking if the Boston Globe writers got half the sale price when the newspaper was sold to the New York Times.

    Bloggers here are paid a wage that we’ve agreed upon – that doesn’t give them equity in the site.

  • Mike,

    When 9rules sells, are you going to divvy up the sale amount according to how many “notes” and comments users have generated?

    What if they do a podcast? Does that count more than a post? What about video? That’s even better than a podcast, right?

    How about forum entries — I know some folks wear out keyboards on those things. And since 9rules is a vibrant community, aren’t those the things upon which the value is not only built, but also currently predicated?

    That said, and given what I believe are the management team’s aspirations (read paragraph 5, sentence 1) for 9rules, do you intend to divide up the sum total according to some idealistic, socialist formula if you ever do get acquired?

    Although I am a huge fan of the idea of being fair to all parties involved, my own experience has repeatedly shown me that business (and life, for that matter), is never as fair or as judicious as my ideals. I have been on the losing end of that deal twice in my life, and coming from that perspective, I simply expect the owners and founders to take their share and move on.

    I mean, what can you argue against that, realisticially? At the end of the day, the founders were the ones who took the financial risks, found the personnel, managed the cash flow, and drove the ship. It’s nice to see the integral cogs get rewarded handsomely for their invaluable efforts, but when the time comes, $6 million (or whatever) doesn’t seem like so much when you start slicing it up in different ways.

    And 9rules, with it’s “everyone gets to be a _EO” philosophy, really has it tough in this realm, because amounts really get small in a hurry when divided four, five, or even more ways.

    Bottom line, I think you are an intelligent guy and likely know enough about business at this point to realize that you’re just stirring the pot here. All I’m saying in return is that business is business, and philosophies are going to differ. At the end of the day, all you can do is the best job you can for your venture.

    Although I will admit that your comments here likely have a “rah rah” reverb effect over in the 9rules playground, regardless of the outcome of this thread.

  • Mike – stirring the pot or not, I don’t think you should comment this late at night – it makes you look quite stupid.

    And if that was the first thing you thought of, shit you’ve got some learning to do in business (for dummies). ;)

  • Holy crap! What if we divide it not by the writers but by the commenters imagine the check you would have to send to John Evans over at Syntagma.

    Mike good post if you were serious.

    Chris,
    That ‘comment’ was as long as a blog post. Woah. Easy there on the keyboard. Aren’t you supposed to be designing something?

  • Matt is has been an honour to work with you and also with all the other writers here on the Herald. You were one of the first people/bloggers I trusted here in cyberspace. :)

    I’ve never actually had an anal fissure… I had an attack of acute gangrenous appendicitis followed by the surgical removal of such. Then another 11″ of ileum taken out 3 weeks later. ;)

  • I’d also publicly thank Matt for his time here — he was the consummate professional in his dealings with me, and I’d like to thank him indulging my non sensical ramblings from time to time.

    If anyone is interested, I did an interview with Matt focusing on the “Why I Sold The BlogHerald” — we also talked about the challenges he faced with managing a blog network, and some advice he’s got for would-be blog networkers.
    http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/12/04/matt-craven-on-the-record-why-i-sold-the-blogherald/

  • …indulging my non sensical ramblings from time to time.

    So true Tony. Matt I don’t know how you dealt with me from time to time ;)

    …off to read your interview Tony…

  • I wonder if, and hope that, the third owners of the Blog Herald are more balanced with their articles or is it something about this blog that promotes fanboyism?

  • Matt, many congrats on being the best blog salesman around. You must sell at least two a day.

    Your silence about TBH told me you were selling it, so it’s not such a surprise. The polite comments by the b5ers, suggest that that voracious accumulator, Jeremy, is behind this. :-) Pardon me if I’m wrong.

    And, David, PayPal will do nicely for my outstanding contribution to the Blog Herald’s success. ;-)

  • The polite comments by the b5ers, suggest that that voracious accumulator, Jeremy, is behind this.

    No. b5media and/or Jeremy had nothing to do with this sale.

    Matt

  • Matt – just wanted to say I am going to really miss you – you have done an outstanding job here. I was one who unsubbed right after Duncan sold it, then came back. I guess I won’t jump ship too early this time – I hope your future ventures are ultra successful, you deserve it.

  • Well, congratualtions from my side too, blogherald has been one of the most informative and innovative collection of blogs and news in combination.

    Congrats to Matt once again.

  • Matt,
    Congratulations on everything you did here at the Blog Herald. As Christina said, it’s outstanding and the legacy you leave does you proud. Congratulations also on the sale! Virtual champagne and big smiles. :)

  • The polite comments by b5ers?

    Darren sent a trackback and he’s the ultimate gentelman anyway. Even to you, John.

    And Matt is my friend.

    Christina commented after you so you can’t be referring to her.

    John you amaze and amuse me. Go back to bed.

  • Keep up the good work Mike, you’re helping out the already grand image of 9rules. How pitiful.

  • Nope, we have nothing to do with this. We heard about it early, but the sale price was beyond what we were willing to pay for the site. Word on the street is that the buyer is an “unknown figure” in the blogging world. Should be fun, actually, to get some fresh blood in here :)

    Anyways, congrats. Looking forward to finding out who the buyer is and welcoming them to the community :)

  • Thanks for the opportunity to blog here Matt!

    As far as group blogging goes, this has probably been my best experience online!

    Good luck with your new adventures, as well as the rest of the ProBlogger Inc. team!

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