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Blog Networks: Time for a Reality Check !

"The barrier to entry in Internet media is low, the barrier to success is high."

Nick Denton of Gawker is doing a massive restructuring of Gawker network - the underperforming blogs will be sold and several high-profile bloggers including Jesse Oxfeld will be given the pink slip.
The domain names, archives and graphics of Sploid and Screenhead, which attract pageviews a month of 900k and growing and 500k respectively, are for sale.
While layoffs and reorgs are a common practice across all industries, it has touched the blog community for the first time.

In the past, companies have fired staff for sharing secrets on blogs but there were no cases reported where a person is fired because his blog doesn't meet the level of expections (or pageviews, incoming links, advertising revenue, etc).

Gawker has hit the trigger and don't be surprised if other blog networks like WeblogsInc, b5media and the Indian InstaBlogs follow the Gawker path. Get the page views and the advertisers else you'll be shown the door.

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