Earlier this week, Internet Brands acquired twelve more web sites for the firm’s stable of web properties, bringing the firm’s total number of web sites up to 200. It’s an increasingly common strategy you are seeing out of Southern California companies: companies which are buying up small web sites, and selling advertising against those web sites to advertisers. The web market is increasingly looking a lot like the traditional publishing market; a set of publishers owning many, disparate but somewhat related vertical content properties. It’s a lot like the structure of the magazine publishing industry.

Among the more active and visible companies here, in addition to InternetBrands, are AtomicOnline, which has made numerous acquisitions recently either directly or through its CraveOnline subsidiary and Demand Media, Richard Rosenblatt’s new media startup. Demand Media, which in addition to running its own properties like Trails.com and eHow, also has a joint venture with Lance Armstrong, at Livestrong.com. Buzznet, a venture funded social media site focused on music, has been buying up music related blogs and other web sites–most recently a heavy metal site, and a punk music community. Even web video firms — like FunnyOrDie, the online comedy site started by comedian Will Ferrell, has its own stable of related sites, like PwnOrDie, ShredOrDie, and even EatDrinkOrDie — a food site. Similarly, new media studio DECA is spawning out its own set of web properties, including video tied to existing brand BoingBoing, a comedy site called BushLeague.TV, CoolMom.com for moms, and more.

What does this mean for small web publishers? For those who are creating their own niche sites, it’s actually a good thing; the emergence of these and other companies looking to aggregate critical mass of sites means that there is a set of possible buyers for projects; rarely do these bigger publishers go out and try to create their own sites.

(photo credit:  sporkist@flickr)

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Internet by Benjamin Kuo