“They think it’s all over…” It will be soon - football blog Who Ate All The Pies is being shut down or offered for sale, the latest change at UK blog publishing flag bearer Shiny Media.

SEE ALSO: Shiny Media Co-Founder Norris Leaves To Form Online Video Startup

Editor Ollie Irish: “In its current form, as published by Shiny Media, Pies is no more. It’s very frustrating, especially with so much juicy stuff I’d like to write about right now. I won’t go into the reasons why - I’m just the editor, and the decision was not mine - but fans of the site will be happy to know that Pies may still have a future, so watch the web for more news on that.” A possible nod to attempts to sell the site.

Shiny MD Chris Price told J.co.uk: “Pies is very strong editorially, but I don’t think its any secret that sport is very hard to monetise.” Former Stuff and Observer Sport Monthly ed Irish seems set to stick with lads’ content at Grand Parade‘s Gridcrasher blog.

Shiny co-founder and chief Ashley Norris last month left the business, which got an impressive million funding from new VC Brightstation last year, citing lack of advertisers, writing talent and the BBC’s strength, a month after blog publishing counterpart MessyMedia shut shop, for similar reasons; Mink Media shut, too. So UK blog startups have clearly had little success replicating the trail blazed by Gawker and Weblogs Inc in the US and, now that traditional media operators have launched blog offerings of their own, there’s precious little exit opportunity to any of the old guard. Still, Shiny remains the leading exponent of the potential.

Remaining bosses Katie Lee and Chris Price themselves submit: “Revenue is going up month on month and traffic has increased 26 per cent over the last 12 months. So it seems ‘rumours of our death’ - to paraphrase Mark Twain - have been greatly exaggerated.” Still, with Norris out of the picture and the axe already falling on one blog, one has to wonder if more closures may be on the cards…