Susan Mernit notes that Blogger Pro users have been told that the features of the Pro service are being folded into the free version and there will be no more Blogger Pro. MarketingWonk has the story as well as a discussion on the possible motives. The exodus of high profile blogs has been well documented (see below). My take is that the extra money available to Google via placing AdSense adds on the 1.5 million blogs far outweighs the paltry sums collected from the Blogger Pro subscriptions.
As a side note, I’m considering discontinuing the Running List of BlogSpot Defectors after tracking 150 sites that have moved in the since March 15th, 2003. The pace of defections has slowed a bit and I’m just not sure that anyone is using the list anymore. I’m not deleting it, just considering not updating it…
The funny thing is, seems like people are now starting to leave radio hosting too.
Ooh,ooh…before ya quit updating, add me to it. When I read you’d be too busy to answer emails and concluded I’d be stuck with my messed up template, I moved. That’s MY solution to fixing the template.
I ain’t no Kevin, ya know?
Funny that you post this on the day I move off of BlogSpot.
Yes, I still have my old Blogger Pro account from when I first started blogging in June 2002. I got the email the other day too. Susan left out the best part, tho:
“So we’re in the fortunate position of being able to give back to our users. Specifically, we want give all of you who paid for Pro, a Blogger hoodie as a way of saying thanks. Just go to http://new.blogger.com/sweatshirt.pyra by October 1, 2003 to claim yours.”
I can hardly wait.