Blawg Review & Weblogs Inc.

Two internet deals came together this week, perhaps beginning a trend, with big media companies taking an interest in blog networks.

First announced was the sale of Weblogs Inc. to AOL, the internet division of Time-Warner, in a deal rumored to be worth $25 Million:

"Weblogs is delighted to join up with AOL, and in so doing, we've reached a milestone in the development of citizen media," Jason McCabe Calacanis, co-founder and CEO of Weblogs said. "Weblogs has made great strides over the past two years building high-profile blogs. Yet, we realized that taking our network to the next level required a partner not only with a significant audience, but the advertising expertise to leverage it. In AOL, we found the ideal company to join."

For many of the same reasons, we are pleased to announce today that Blawg Review has affiliated with Law.com an online division of ALM, a leading integrated media company serving legal, real estate, financial and business professionals.

Blawg Review is the collaboration of a worldwide community of lawyers, law students and law professors; a law blog project administered by an Editor in Chief with help from well-known Contributing Editors, including Kevin Heller, Evan Schaeffer and Michael Cernovich.

Insiders to the deal describe it as a win for the bloggers and media publishers as well. ALM adds to its Law.com network of affiliated bloggers a unique portal with access to the greater community of law blog readers, while participants in Blawg Review get broader exposure of their blawgs to the traditional media audience of tens of thousands of subscribers to ALM's print and online services for the legal profession.

ALM's Law.com is the leading legal news and information network online, connecting legal professionals to more than 20 award-winning national and regional legal publications online, including The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, New York Law Journal and Legal Times, and delivering top legal news electronically to a growing national and global audience of subscribers each day on The Newswire.

Blogging expert B.L. Ochman told TechNewsWorld that the Weblogs acquisition positions AOL to move into the blogging spotlight, adding, "I think you are going to see a lot more of this. It's a fantastic sign for new media in general because it indicates that there is more mainstream acceptance of the fact that there is some influential content out there that's worth reading."

We appreciate that ALM saw that in Blawg Review, and think they got a great deal. We're happy, too.