Many of us who blog in the healthy living niche were really saddened to hear that Elastic Waist, owned by Conde Nast, was being shut down because well in our part of the blogosphere Elastic Waist was one of the biggies. If this were tech, it would be like hearing that Mashable was shutting down. It's a major bummer.
Along with Elastic Waist, Conde Nast is shutting down skincare blog Product Fiend and sex blog Daily Bedpost. The reason for the shut down was no shocker, unsustainability due to falling ad revenue in this down market.
Because the three blogs were owned by mega corporation Conde Nast, the shut down got coverage in big industry site Mediaweek. I'd like to take a moment though to correct the MediaWeek story by saying the word choice "little known blogs" is not entirely appropriate because in the niches that these three blogs belonged to: healthy living, beauty, and sex/relationships, these blogs were big and very much well known. As well, the bloggers of each blog were very well known in their respective communities.
Just because a blog has little traffic numbers and wasn't splashed all over the mainstream media does not automatically mean it is "little known". Context needs to be considered. A blog may be little known to the general media public, but can be a huge player in the blog's niche.
Therefore, in context, Elastic Waist may have been unknown to the Mediaweek audience, but the blog was one of the major players in the healthy living blog community, and will indeed be deeply missed. I would like to take a moment to pay respect to a quality blog. Hat tip to my fellow niche bloggers at Elastic Waist!