Silenced voices

Around the middle of last decade, sports blogging was at it's very best, in my opinion. A lot of talented writers were starting their own independent sites, unhindered by the constraints of editors or the bottom line. These talented writers took advantage of some great ideas and developed them and made them their own. If they hadn't had these forums to create their own projects, there are many talented writers that may never have got their opportunity to make a name for themselves, from Michael Tunison to the brothers Mottram to Henry Abbott. Currently, Michael Tunison is best known (to me, anyways) as Christmas Ape at Kissing Suzy Kolber and author of a Football Fan's Manifesto. Jamie Mottram is the managing sports blog editor at Yahoo! and Henry Abbott has a job covering the NBA for ESPN.
Back in those halcyon days, AOL decided to get into the game and added Jamie Mottram as it's first editor, and he did an admirable job, adding many of the best and brightest independent bloggers. My friend Kevin Schultz was among them, as were the gentlemen who created the Dugout, one of my favorite things to grace the internet. This was an exciting proposition for the sports blogosphere. A greater, credible voice to bloggers everywhere. Repute for the medium. It was, for it's time, the greatest thing on the internet. An assemblage of gifted, demonstrably creative writers all in one place.
Then Yahoo came through and snapped up Mottram and it was the beginning of the end. Those bloggers that he had wooed started to find other gigs (namely with him at Yahoo, on their own or with other syndicates, like SB Nation, for example. As the blogging staff thinned, AOL tried to fill those spots with established writers like Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone. There were still spots for the Dugout and other kitschy bloggers on their "Backporch", but the message was clear: AOL was looking to go mainstream media. At this point, even The Dugout as left in the hand of only Brandon Stroud, as Jon Bois and Nick Dallamora had moved on.
Tuesday, the Fanhouse was shutdown. The Sporting News took over and ended the blogging  adventure. The remaining bloggers were laid off and the fun was sucked out of AOL sports. All of these bloggers who had, for all intents and purposes, made it, are now without a paid gig. Suddenly, strictly blogging is no longer profitable. Most of these writers will be able to move on, I believe. I worry, though, about Stroud. His gig revolved around pretending it was an AOL chatroom. What now? He was let go by the same company that provided the back drop of his creative vehicle.
What once seemed like such a creative boon for independent writers has turned on those writers. THe voices were silenced.