Aside from that small triumph, the sale is odd in many ways. Ali had showed every signs of trying to bulk up PaidContent's parent company, ContentNext Media, with a CEO and venture-capital financing. The Guardian group, which runs successful websites for its newspapers, may bring some U.K. media savvy, but has very little U.S. infraastructure to help PaidContent's ad sales or operations.

But it does resolve one thing: PaidContent's odd domain name. Insiders have long been quizzical about the ".org", supposedly reserved for nonprofits, on a plainly capitalist blog. Guardian Media Group is owned by a nonprofit trust. Blogging not-for-profit? An apt description of the enterprise for the vast majority of its players.

The big market for us is the trade media. Companies like Reed Elsevier, Nielsen, Incisive and Informa play in this market, not these blogs.

And Ali is putting forward this odd ambition even as Hollywood solons are looking at an industrywide downturn, and their spokesrag Variety is for sale by Reed Elsevier. To quote another So. Cal.-based journo who's made a name for herself chasing personal foibles on a blog, Nikki Finke, "[W]hat if someone buys Variety and turns it into a real news-gathering operation and not just an echo chamber for the powers-that-be that control showbiz?" Seems both Ali and Arrington are aiming for the weakest members of the herd.

The other new hire will be a senior sales manager, who previously worked in a similar position at Forbes according to a source familiar with the company. (Forbes sales contact Kevin Getzel is my wild guess.) Also, the board of directors will be adding a new member, "a well known name in entertainment and media." And what convinced Richardson to give up his good works in Africa? Death threats from armed rebels. Sounds to me like a smart move. (Photo by John Abbott)