I’m a bit behind the eight ball on reporting the news that b5media has reorganized its channels, because I wanted to do it justice.

Here’s a quote from their post on b5′s main site:

But channels were always about readers. Helping them find the right content for them. As we grew, though, we found that we were running into the same problems as before, particularly amongst two channels: Lifestyles and Women. The ideas for the channels were right, but what ended up happening was that anything even vaguely feminine went into Women and everything else went into Lifestyles.

So, we have reorganized the channels. We dumped some, merged others, split others and created a bunch of new ones. The change has been live in the sidebar since yesterday…

I’m a fan of channels, especially for any network large enough to have them.

In b5′s case, with a ton of blogs in their network now, organizing into channels with editors allows the editors to oversee the bloggers – helping to grow and nurture them along as their sites grow. It also enables, from a time standpoint, the founders and their key partners to focus on larger scale issues affecting the company.

Plus, the organization into channels simply makes sense…

I will be interested in seeing how this evolves over time within b5 – and how the use of these channels (or communities, as I choose to think of them) will work in a future version of b5′s main site.. or in some sort of memetracker such as Tailrank or other similar sites.

Is there Food? has joined the Blue Fish Network.

Metroblogging and Federated Media have announced a partnership:

I’m pleased to announce that FM and Metroblogging are teaming up. We’re excited to work with Sean and the team there – they’ve built a great local presence in 45 cities, and are growing very quickly. FM will be including Metroblogging in our self service platform, which launches shortly, and representing MB’s sites in our outbound sales.

Also see Sean’s announcement over at the Metroblogging site.

Weblogs, Inc. has launched AutoblogGreen, a new blog focused on green technology for automobiles:

Ah! You can all breathe deeper, now, thanks to Autoblog’s new spinoff, AutoblogGreen. Whether you’re interested in a hybrid Vespa or you’d like to investigate the many possibilities of vegetable oil-powered vehicles (even: biodiesel for the lazy man thanks to Oregon State University), or you just want to know what you’re going to do about rising gasoline prices, AutoblogGreen is here for you.

This brilliant effort by Autoblog’s John Neff and Chris Paukert is staffed by brand-new lead Sebastian Blanco and the writing talents of Bruno Vanzieleghem, Cheryl Morrissette, and the rest of the Autoblog team.

The Blue Fish Network has picked up a few more fish.

b5media has launched Tangled Thread:

Deb is a stitcher (and writer) extraordinaire and will be blogging about all different types of needlework from the ever popular cross stitch to surface embroidery. Embroidery is both an art and craft with an intricate past and Deb has a wealth of knowledge about needlework in culture, fiction, and history. And if you need a partner in crime for hoarding stash, you couldn’t find a better companion than Deb! I know you crafters will enjoy Tangled Thread and if you ever wanted to try it for yourself, let Deb and Tangled Thread show you the way!

Creative Weblogging has hired Anita Campbell as the new Executive Editor for their growing network:

Creative Weblogging has grown up quite a bit since its inception. We are now 5 full time employees in Palo Alto, CA and work with more than 70 bloggers in many parts of the world. 55+ sites in English, 6 in German, 2 in French and 1 in Chinese make quite a portfolio.

While I had some help in finding new bloggers and educating them I was still responsible for most of the work (good or bad you may say!). Combine this with tax filings, conferences, speaking engagements, investor relations and a though release schedule things can get very busy.

I’m glad that our dream candidate for the Executive Editor position has signed on finally. Anita is an amazing person and a superbly successful blogger on her own. She not only writes RFID Weblog and SmallBusinessTrends but also has a radio show. Anita will be reponsible for strengthening our network by improving editorial quality and finding new talented bloggers.

Om Malik points out that Gawker has hit 60 million pageviews since its launch in 2002.

Check out the chart for a better visual read.

9rules is gearing up for round 4 of network submissions:

People are always asking when the next round of submissions for our Network will be and we have finally decided on the date and figured we would tell you now instead of our usual 7 day notice.

Why so far away?

• We know a lot of sites are participating in the CSS Reboot and we believe their focus should be on putting together a quality site for their audience along with having enough time to work out whatever bugs they may come across.
• This also gives some warning to the sites that may have started recently that wish to push the schedule of their postings so that we have a good gauge of how their content will be in the future.
• Before then we like to think we will have the new features added to the Communities and Network so that gives us time to get situated and carry on momentum towards the Submission Round.

So if you are interested in joining the 9rules Network please remember that date as you will only have 24 hours to submit your site. Between now and then I will have a series of posts detailing what makes a great site (in my opinion) that should give some insight into what we look for when evaluating sites.
Look for a new Spanish submission round in the near future as well.

Syntagma Knitmodo:

Syntagma Media is pleased to announce the launch of our 22nd blog: Knitmodo. It will be authored by Adelle Tilton, and will form part of Adelle’s Creme de la Femme when it goes live toward the end of May.

Knitting is big business these days, especially in the U.S. where something of the pioneer spirit still survives. I’m looking forward to sharpening my needles. You never know, they might come in handy.