LiveJournal, one of the longest-running online communities, is apparently being hit harder by the recession than most. The company has reportedly laid off 20 of 28 employees, “leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers.”
The blogging site has gone through several changes in ownership since its inception, first being acquired by Six Apart, who then sold it to the Russian media company SUP in late 2007. Unlike competitors Automattic and Six Apart, LiveJournal is a completely hosted blogging solution, blending blogging with social networking features, and the vast majority of its blogs take the form of personal diaries as opposed to more professional, topical writing.
While LiveJournal execs are apparently blaming the slowdown in the economy and ad spending, stats point to an overall decline in interest in the medium. Both LiveJournal and competitor Xanga have seen their traffic decline over the past two years, as social networks like Facebook and MySpace have come to dominate the demographics that the blogging sites target.
No skin off my nose. Haven't used LiveJournal for blogging in years, and what I have posted there might have been written by a totally different person.