Blog networks take funding

GigaOm recently announced a $4.5 million round of funding and the rest of the blogoshpere went HOORAY!

This is GigaOm’s second round and boosted its war chest to a reported $5.3 million. They join Silicon Alley Insider, b5Media, VentureBeat and a couple of smaller networks as having raised institutional money. I have mixed emotions about this.

On one hand, all businesses require an up-front capital injection in order to get started. Often times, however, this is a small, upfront loan that is repayed when the business succeeds. In the case of venture capital, the cash injection is doled out at some point well within a company’s life cycle.

For a blog network that relies upon posting news stories of companies, which generally are backed by venture capital firms, to take venture capital money seems like an inherent conflict of interest.

SAI’s disclaimer page does not allude to its funding sources. It’s disclosure statement does not say what VC it has raised. And I couldn’t track down any information about its funding on its site or its parent company’s site, AlleyCorp. But this summer, it announced a round of funding.

Does this affect its coverage? I would hope not. But bloggers, reporters, journalists or anybody that purports to report “news” should be attempting to maintain a level of objectiveness. And when you’re fueled by a VC firm’s funds, that can be kind of difficult.

I’m just sayin’.