BlogMedia, the parent company of BlogHerald, a blog that I also blog at (ah, using “blog” as a noun and a verb leads to all kinds of grammatical fun) is currently under a repositioning effort that has seen Head Honcho Matt Craven divest BlogMedia of quite a few blogs of late. With BlogMedia transforming into ProBlogging.com, I pinned down Matt for a few words during the middle of a particularly bloody divestiture (is that a word?) for a few words on ProBlogging’s plans for its future, its focus and scope, and above all the burning question on my mind — is the BlogHerald safe from its bloody axe?

Tony Hung: So, how long have you been planning these changes?
Matt Craven: I think any good businessman/woman takes time to sit down and think about where their business is and where their focus should be. This is something that we’ve always done regularly. Our recent discussions have led us to believe that we’ve made our focus overly broad and our recent steps have been to narrow that focus.

TH: It seems like BlogMedia has divested itself of many different blogs in pursuit of that focus; where does that leave the BlogHerald?
MC: The Blog Herald is a key part of Problogging, Inc. and the cornerstone of our coverage of the blogosphere.

TH: Can you expand a little on what your focus will be on — from a blogging point of view?
MC: We’ll always be covering the blogosphere in some way, shape, or form. We’ll be talking more about professional blogging over at problogging.com - and launching a new podcast only site in the near future.

TH: You’ve divested yourself of quite a few blogs; will you be looking to acquire any blogs at this point to hone your focus?
MC: While we would never rule out an acquisition of the right site for the right price, we’re not currently seeking to acquire a blog, or any other website for that matter

TH: It sounds like ProBlogging is meant to be a “full service” firm for bloggers, including consulting work. Have you done any consulting work with bloggers, and can you tell us about any successes you may have had?
MC: Our blog network is our resume along with other consulting work that we have done. In our time owning The Blog Herald, we’ve increased traffic by 27% and revenues by 30% - mostly by implementing tactics that we’ve developed. Beyond that, some of our consulting clients include Fortune 500 companies in the United States - we’ve been doing more and more blog work with them over the last two years. But unfortunately, we can’t disclose that client list. Part of getting companies to blog is getting them over the fear that they have to share *everything* about what goes on within their company. They don’t have to be a Scoble, for example.. instead they just need to be authentic representatives of their company, which is easier said that done.

TH: Speaking of Fortune 500 companies, is your focus going to be large corporations? Or smaller businesses? Or, is it really going to include everyone?
MC: We’re going to have a broad focus here - but we believe that there’s a huge opportunity for all businesses - small, medium, and large - to use blogging as a way to help promote their business. Plus, we think that our own experiences with building blogs will make for some good copy and some great lessons to be learned by others - and we’re looking forward to sharing those.

TH: I know its early, but can you give us any hints what we can expect in ProBlogging’s first 100 days?
MC: In the first 100 days? Well, we have some site work to do and some development work to do on the backend - but we’ll be launching some new services and other features to the site sometime in the first 100 days or so. And we hope to have our first eBook out during that time.

TH: Will it be free?
MC: we’ll be publishing some free ones, yes. But some probably won’t be free.

TH: Thanks matt.
MC: No Problem Tony.

And with that, Matt went back to swinging that bloody axe of his. At this count, BlogMedia (err, or is that ProBlogging) has has sold three blogs, and has put a fourth on the chopping block, and unfortunately, I didn’t ask if there were going to be any more (cue in dangerous music).