Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable
In 2005, when Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Arrington started TechCrunch, his popular blog on Internet startups, he saw it mainly as a chance to indulge his obsession with young technology companies. — But it turned out that Arrington had latched onto something big.
Context & Ripple Effects
TechCrunch has been quietly building a business case for two years: Business 2.0's Blogging for Dollars piece in August 2006 framed the money in blogs as an emerging phenomenon, and Wired followed in June 2007 with a profile of how Arrington converts coverage into buzz and cash. The Chronicle's take lands at a moment when the operation is visibly institutionalizing — Erick Schonfeld came over from Business 2.0 as co-editor in September, and Arrington agreed to share editorial leadership of what began as a one-man obsession.
The profitability framing also matters commercially: reports circulated in early October that TechCrunch was in talks to sell to CNET for over $100 million, though that remains unconfirmed, and Valleywag has rumored the newer parts of the blog network underperform the parent brand. A mainstream paper certifying the unit economics gives both stories their backdrop.
First-order effects
- TechCrunch gains a legitimacy signal it cannot buy: a San Francisco Chronicle feature treating the blog as a proven business rather than a hobby, arriving weeks after the Schonfeld co-editor hire formalized its move from solo act to masthead.
- Arrington's negotiating position improves if sale talks are real — a confirmed-profitability narrative supports the reported nine-figure price tag, even though the CNET discussions remain unconfirmed.
Second-order effects
- Other solo bloggers face pressure to follow the same playbook — hire editorial talent from legacy outlets, expand into networks and events like September's TechCrunch40 — or cede advertiser attention to scaled operations.
- Legacy tech media loses staff and ad dollars to the format it once dismissed; Business 2.0 supplying TechCrunch its new co-editor is the pattern in miniature.
Third-order effects
- If the rumored $100M-class valuations hold up anywhere near reality, standalone blogs become acquirable assets, pushing the medium from independent publishing toward consolidation under traditional media owners.
- Ad pricing in the sector still leans on subscriber metrics that a recent analysis argued are inflated by default-feed effects — if buyers discount those numbers, revenue models built on reach claims get re-priced.
The trend: Founder-led blogs are maturing from personal sites into profitable media businesses, with acquisition interest from legacy publishers marking the next stage of that arc.