Bloggers Shuffle

In the stream of fake news today comes a bit of real news in the tech blogging community: Grant Robertson is leaving Download Squad to join Robert Scoble over at Fast Company (producing for Shel Israel). Replacing Robertson? None other than b5media's founding CTO Aaron Brazell, who announced his departure 26 March.

In Brazell's resignation announcement on his personal blog, he claimed he was looking to explore new territory. In some ways, I suppose Download Squad is new territory, but it's still in the tech blog arena, so it isn't as if it's brand new.

What's more curious, however, is the recent run of job listings at b5media. In addition to searching for a replacement for Brazell, they are also searching for a content director, a political gossip blogger, an entertainment blogger, a TV blogger, a green business blogger, and a “dumb news” blogger (which has been filled), with all jobs posted within the past three weeks. You assume regular turnover at blog networks with tons of bloggers, but when you see administration turning over as well, you have to wonder if there's something else at play.

As for Robertson, his announcement can be described as self-deprecating, at best, and gives his reason for leaving as needing a better fit for his creative talents. We wish them both the best in their new positions, and I'll be keeping a closer eye on the goings-on at b5.

Full disclosure: I have, on occasion, applied for open positions in the b5 network. My emails, however, appear to be written with invisible ink.