Technology Guardian regular Ashley Norris and friends have scored an interesting boost for the world of blog publishing by securing $4.5m funding from Bright Station Ventures to put into the Shiny Media network.
According to Paul Durman in the Sunday Times, Bright Station is the brainchild of "jilted tech boss" Dan Wagner, who once missed a golden opportunity to rake in the cash.
The entrepreneur who ran the Maid online information business in the 1990s, once turned down an opportunity to invest $1m (£510,000) for 30% of the fledgling Ebay -- a stake that would now be worth many billions.
Although Wagner missed the chance to back Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar, who briefly worked in the group's Californian arm, he has taken steps to make sure he doesn't make the same mistake again.
Shiny claims to be Europe's largest independent blog publisher, following the model set by Jason Calacanis (Weblogs Inc) and Nick Denton (Gawker), and - in Ashley's words - "attracts almost three million readers each month to our 22 sites".
