Is It The Death Knell For Weblogs?
By Anna Johnson on January 31st, 2009A source close to AOL has told ReadWriteWeb that AOL plans to shut down Weblogs, Inc’s ‘Lifestyle blogs’ (which make up about 25 percent of the Weblogs network) and transform them into online magazines. AOL has steadfastly denied the claim… but ReadWriteWeb is sticking with the story.
As indicated by ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick – who originally wrote for Weblogs, before moving on to TechCrunch and then ReadWriteWeb – AOL has failed to capitalize on Weblogs, which it acquired for $25 million from co-founders Jason Calacanis (founder and CEO of Mahlab, Inc) and Brian Alvey (who now runs another blog network called Crowd Fusion).
Mr Kirpatrick believes AOL may end up turning Weblogs into a “a collection of mainstream-feeling magazine sites run by more traditional journalists.”
If the story it true, this may well end up being the case…
