Media stories tend not to be our staple fare here at TechCrunch, but it’s worth mentioning the launch of a new professional blog publisher in the UK, MessyMedia, and welcoming them to the blogosphere.
I wrote an article over two years ago for the Financial Times about what I thought at the time would be the rise of blog publishers in the UK. Others noticed the trend too. But today there is only one big player left, ShinyMedia. Granted there is also the three-month-old startup BlogNation, but it appears to be concentrating on being a global, rather than UK-specific blog network, as well as becoming a “TechMeme for the rest of the world“. Successful blog publishers, who have flourished in places like the US, Canada, France and elsewhere, have been few and far between in the UK.
However, MessyMedia has a particularly good publishing pedigree, which is unusual in the wild world of blogs. It’s headed-up by Lloyd Shepherd, formerly of Guardian Unlimited and Yahoo Europe, and Andrew Levy, formerly of Yahoo Europe. Both are former journalists and both know a lot about online publishing.
Westmonster – their first site – is a new blog about British politics, which will be “irreverent, clued-up and scurrilous“. It’s written by Westminster insider Sadie Smith. Others are planned.