Infinite Path

Shiny Media Limited, the revolutionary blog network company, which went into administration on 17th July has now sold some of its fashion blogs after much confusion.

Shiny Media Limited was bought immediately by Shiny Digital Limited, a company formed by the founders of Shiny Media. Now, a third company has stepped in to buy some of the fashion blogs that Shiny Media produced.

Shiny Media started out with their pioneering blog publishing network at a time when there was great excitement surrounding web publishing. Their concept was unique and it appeared like it could be a great business that would revolutionise the way content was viewed online. It received heavy backing, which was a sign to many that they were onto something. However, like so many online publishers, no clear revenue model appeared and before long advertising earnings dried up.

Bright Station Limited is the company which has taken the fashion blogs off their hands. The question is, what do they plan to do with them to make money? At this time, with a weak economy and reduced budgets for online ad spend, it is hard to see that anyone will invest in them on the basis that they may or may not see a return in the years to come.

What do they plan to do? Running sophisticated blog networks, like those from Shiny Media, take up a lot of resources. Writers need to be paid for producing content, and day-to-day administration costs can also mount up…and that’s without taking hosting and server costs into account.

Many might say that Shiny Media were unlucky. Maybe if they had come to the fore a bit later they may have been able to come up with a contingency plan and a different business model. But unfortunately, their innovative and new form of publishing ended in disaster and confusion.

Online publishing companies should learn a lesson from this scenario and always have a solid business plan before entering into what is already a saturated, and in many cases, unsuccessful market.