Earlier this month, b5media – online publisher for various lifestyle blogs – terminated their remaining contracted bloggers from their creative team.  It was revealed that this was not the result of planned downsizing, in an email from by b5’s CEO, Elaine Kunda.

“We have undergone strategic changes within the business which have resulted in the termination of many of our freelance bloggers. The changes are not due to “downsizing” as we have increased our editorial strength with a team of dedicated writers and editors in NYC,” Kunda stated in her March 5 email.

Recently I decided to dig a little deeper into the impact the termination is having locally.  Jason Bean, a long time blogger for the company, was one of the terminated bloggers.  Having first been published in December 2005, Jason started writing for b5media shortly after their initial launch.  Through-out the years, he’s contributed to several of the company’s web properties, focusing mainly on technology, but also authoring pieces about American Idol and CSI.

I asked Jason if there was any advance warning that a termination although he wasn’t surprised when he received his termination email. Despite the company having always treated their staff with value and always kept the lines of communication open.  Jason found that it became tougher to maintain a feeling of job security as time passed, management changed and bloggers were terminated.  To him, it felt like working for a different company and soon that became evident as the writing on the wall.

“My plans moving forward are what a number of people have encouraged me to do over the years I was at b5media. Invest in myself and manage my own web properties,” he stated.  Although he’ll focus on his own projects, Jason stated he would always consider other writing opportunities for new clients.

“I’ll absolutely miss working for b5. I was a proud member of the network and enjoyed my time with them.”

It’s unclear as to why b5’s pool of contract writers did not fit in with their plans to develop their business model or whether any effort was made for those terminated to find other positions within the company.  After the initial contact with b5media, additional communications to Ms. Kunda’s office went unanswered.

John Fox : Starting at the age of 6, John was always fascinated with computers. His first machine, an IBM PCjr, had him hooked and from that sparked a love affair with technology. Creating webpages at the age of 12 and the advent of social media that came about in his 20's, he started his own media company, New Media Designs, in 2009. Due to the success of IndyGeek.net, New Media Designs' flagship product, the NMD brand was stopped in April 2010 and IndyGeek became the name of the company founded by Fox, his wife Esther and Alex Conner.