Well five or more years on the site has become a brilliant example of a publishing venture that has expanded from beyond the web, to be snapped up by The Guardian for a rumoured $30 million.

Although nothing has been officially announced The Guardian's technology editor Charles Arthur practically confirmed the news in a Twitter message.

For a little more background drop in on ReadWriteWeb.

Update:
ContentNext 2.0: Life With The Guardian Media Group - PaidContent
Guardian News & Media buys PaidContent publisher - The Guardian

I have helped him with the back office side of things but as I said in a comment the key thing is that Phil has turned up every day with something interesting to say and to link to within his field - readers put a great deal of value in that.

Update: Such green fingered news clearly travels fast as Phil's spin-off site for readers, the Landscape Juice Network, has been featured by Ning, see 100% Landscape Juice.

The YouTube video above has been produced by a journalist friend of mine, George Dearsley, who has combined an audio interview with some images, something you could do with Windows Movie Maker, to add some colour to his chat with the Co-op's Simon Williams.

And the Guardian's Kevin Anderson highlighted the use of Twitter by the newspaper's Michael White as he reports on Prime Minister's Questions from Parliament.

Thanks to a message on Twitter from Mark Comerford about an EU report titled DRAFT REPORT on concentration and pluralism in the media in the European Union (.pdf) I've been able to read that MEPs are keen to promote 'voluntary labelling' for blogs.

And thanks to Mark highlighting a link to an accompanying article on the European Parliament news service I've been able to read how aware of the range of blogs the report's author is.

Estonian Socialist MEP Marianne Mikko is quoted as saying she doesn't see bloggers as a threat but that they are:

...in position, however, to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace". She added, "I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why."

If there is one thing that has come out of the explosion of online publishing it is that the best sites are those whose authors put their names to them, such transparency is what makes them stand out from media practices of the past.

Marianne Mikko should take a little time to look around some of the most popular blogs on the internet to see how people are willing to leave comments for others because they trust the authors and fellow commentators.

Yes there are splogs and other spammy websites but they rarely make the front page of search results, and are definitely not passed between friends on Facebook or tweeted about on Twitter.

And if Marianne Mikko wants to see some fine examples of where people have made available information to others in an open and transparent manner drop in on some case studies of Creative Commons projects.

The report also highlights the steps the European Parliament might take to ensure media choice is strong, but I'll let Andy Dickinson cover that one.

One of the reasons behind the move is that Iain's site has produced poor returns on advertising, he says that Adsense has earned him £7,000 a year and that advertisers just don't get blogs.

From a blog publisher's perspective, there are a couple of things I would take from the interview and a look over Iain Dale's Diary website.

The first is to recognised the difference between people searching for information and readers who follow a website, either by dropping in on the site, following updates by RSS or leaving comments.

People searching for information are more likely to click on related advertising running close to an article, long term readers don't, but what you do often get from these people is support and advocacy both online and in the real world.

I am struggling to think of 'information' type articles that Iain's site might produce, the underlying principle of a political, news driven site is to break stories and be part of the ongoing media rough and tumble.

This fact is reflected in the Press Gazette article which says that media engagements have earned Iain Dale more money than his site, and that is worth remembering with any site - your online presence can be a valuable thing.

The second thing to consider is the position of Adsense text adverts, in the case of Iain's site I could only see a 'skyscraper' ad block running down a column, this really isn't the best place to run advertising.

There is a big difference in the click through rate between ad blocks in side columns and blocks placed at the foot of articles.

Think about it, we condition people to read our articles with a pleasant, easy on the eye wide column and stick our ads to one side out of the way.

Looking at the ads on Iain's site they at least blend in and use similar key colours, but their position on the site should be looked at and the beauty of such is that you can easily measure the results through Adsense and see if it is something worth pursuing.

It is not easy generating an income from a website using blogging tools, but with an eye on the statistics and the way people use and access your site, it could prove an enterprising endeavour.

Website: Iain Dale's Diary

Robin was the leading force behind the BBC Manchester blog project and enjoyed the respect of many bloggers in the city, so I am sure they will wish him the best of luck in his new job, I know I do.

So it was interesting to see (via Paul Bradshaw) a piece about the problems US newspapers face holding on to readers for any length of time.

Whilst at the same time the Daily Telegraph reports that Facebook is set to become the most popular website in the UK - with Britons spending 2.4 billion minutes on the website.

Newspapers are no longer competing against just other newspapers, but the fact that people are just a link, search request or email message away from other websites.

More: Blog traffic reaches all time high - Hitwise

Here TypePad's Michael Sippey provides a quick introduction into how the service will work.

You will be able to write posts, as well as save them for later, but also publish photos directly from the iPhone or add pics from your own image gallery, read more on blogging from your iPhone.