Exclusive: b5media selling off business blogs

Canadian blog network b5media is selling off its business blogs, and possibly its travel blogs (see below) as part of a restructure under new CEO Elaine Kunda.

According to sources familiar with the matter, b5media is shopping the blogs privately to other blog networks and potential buyers. Private sales are primarily used to ensure a smooth transition to a new owner outside of the public eye.

No one will go on the record, and we’re also not sure exactly how b5media is structuring the sale. The b5media business blog network was rolled into the one uber-blog under the name Bizzia earlier this year, and the travel blogs reside under the Blisstree site. It would be difficult to split the blogs out and sell them individually; I’d think Bizzia would be offered as the one site, with the travel blogs either being broken out of Bliss Tree, or they’re not on the market (note I’d couldn’t confirm the travel sale with a second source, only the business sale.)

The sale doesn’t come as a huge surprise for the network given the new management. CEO Elaine Kunda’s previous role at ZipLocal saw similar cost cutting before an eventual sale, something we noted when she took the position late July.

The Bizzia/ b5media business blogs have been the least successful vertical for the company, with Bizzia.com only managing to come in at 31,000 on Alexa. Notably as of 4pm Pacific August 19, there has been very little activity on the site in recent times, suggesting that some writers may have been let go.

We’ve asked b5media for comment and will update the post if we receive it.

Update: a spokesperson for b5media responded via email saying that the story was “unsubstantiated,” which by that I can only presume means they’re not going to confirm it.

Correction: the original post mentioned August 20, when the post went up August 19; my laptop time set to US Pacific (I’m in Seattle as I write this) however Calendar still on Australian Eastern. Apologies for the confusion.

My standard disclosure: I was a founder of b5media, but have had nothing to do with the company since November 2006.