B5media, a blog network, has raised $2 million in venture capital funding from Brightspark Ventures and J. L. Albright Venture Partners (JLA). Rick Segal from JLA has blogged about JLA's investment $1 million investment in b5media here. Rick Segal doesn't disclose what percentage of b5media his company received for the investment of the $1 million but the investment was enough to make Segal chairman of b5media.
B5media's blog network contains over 100 blogs maintained by over 50 bloggers. Bloggers are paid a percentage of the advertising revenues their blog or blogs earn. They company was founded in September, 2005 and merged with About Weblogs last November. The About Weblogs merger gave the network a much-needed boost and added many female bloggers covering niche topics.
Posts about b5's decision to take VC capital funding by the four b5media founders can be read here, here, here, here, here and here. Aaron Brazell, who is joining b5media as the Technology Manager, has a post here. Mark Evans also a post saying he is now vice president of operations for b5media.
Here is how the b5media bloggers found out about the VC capital infusion. They were all logged into b5's internal forum according to PinayExpat in Deutschland.
We were all refreshing every second or so, hoping that Jeremy could type faster but he was evil and he kept us waiting in suspense. The most interesting thing was, I think this was the only time almost all of us were in one place (virtually, at least) at the same time. The later it was for some, the sillier they got. Different time zones, you see. Although, Ingrid and the Bald Man probably behave that way 24/7.
We had fun in the forums and also in the chat room. And when Jeremy finally did finish his internal announcement, there was silence. No one was typing. Everyone was reading. Shortly after, the mojitos and confettis came.
But hey, if someone wants to throw $2 million at the most overhyped of the dozens of small-time blog networks, at least it'll make it more fun when the company implodes.
Squash asks if blog networks are worth investing in.
B5 have said the money will help them put on a VP of sales and I hope they get a good one. Coming from a media background, its impossible to understate how important it is to have an effective sales function and its no difference with blog networks. Problem is this kind of talent ain't cheap. That's going to hit your margins too...
The flip of Squash's question is do individual blog owners or blog network founders want to give up a stake in their company in exchange for capital? As we have seen in the past few weeks a few individual blog owners and blog network founders are answering yes to that question.
