Bloggers Shuffle
by
on April 01, 2008,
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.
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Self-deprecating at best? Ouch.
By the way, it’s “Robertson”
Regular turnover of bloggers when there are 300 some can be expected. As staff, I’m the only one leaving b5. The rest is a result of the company growing and us having to flesh out the positions more. I wouldn’t read much into that.
As for DS… yes it is new… and different. I’ve got big shoes to fill.
The ‘Social Network’ Blog job is with bSocial, not b5.
@Grant I believe I have now fixed all instances of goofing up your name. My most sincere apologies; I think I spend so much time with my own unwieldly name that simpler names elude me.
@Aaron As long as I have you here, maybe you could explain the addition of a content director when there was already a content manager?
@Dave Thanks. I knew there was one more from reading them over the past couple of weeks and I think I grabbed that one instead of the one that had the strike-through.
Content Manager is more specific to handling logistics and relationships with bloggers and Channel Editor while content director is a more executive role dealing with content strategy, etc.
Per aaron, replacing 1% of our bloggers is no big deal. Having a handful of positions open (2 of them growth, 1 replacing aaron) should, again, be no big deal.
The issue with applications is basically that we’re now processing more than 5000 per month. We simply can’t respond directly to everyone, sadly! We wish we could work with and respond to everyone, but we just can’t anymore
If you are still interested, getting a blogger or ce to intro you to the team is a far better bet.
Sucks, I know, but we haven’t yet figured out a better way
Apparently blogging about b5 gets attention, too, eh?
Cyndy: Yes, blogging about b5 does get our attention - ’cause we all probably have similar Google Alerts for the term ‘b5′ or ‘b5media’. Seriously, sorry to hear about not receiving feedback for your application. As Jeremy said, we do get a lot of emails/applications- and while that’s not an excuse, it is a reality. Something that we are working on addressing better. My only suggestion is that if you do apply, do know that you’re also welcome to follow-up. The best bet is to follow-up on the Channel Editor handling the blog. But, if you don’t know who that is, you’re also welcome to follow-up with any b5 staff.
In any case, thank you so much for your interest in b5. As my colleagues here have mentioned, openings will definitely be a staple in the company. Not necessarily just because of turnover but also because of growth.