"We're in startup mode again," Digg's recently appointed CEO Matt Williams tells Mashable. "The burn rate is simply
too high." (Illustrating Digg's present challenges, Mashable's story had been Tweeted 770 times on Tuesday morning, but
only Digged 45 times.)
Williams says the company is determined to reclaim its former glory -- and achieve profitability by 2011 -- by cutting costs, and resetting its
strategy.
"Primarily, the company will focus on increasing engagement with the Digg community, which lost many individuals during the disastrous release of the New Digg,"
reports Mashable, referring to Digg's recent relaunch. Williams "wants the company to 'listen hard' to users in order to re-engage them."
Furthermore, Williams
believes "Diggable Ads," so-called, will appeal to both users and advertisers. "He believes Digg's new ad format is an innovative and powerful ad product," writes Mashable.
Despite Digg's prospects, however, some are already using it as a new media cautionary tail.
"Digg has become a Silicon Valley fable because it didn't
sell out when it was hot and allowed itself to be surpassed by other hot social networks such as Facebook," writes SocialBeat. The conventional wisdom is that [onetime CEO Jay Adelson] and founder
Kevin Rose should have taken big offers from the likes of Google and Al Gore's Current social broadcasting company."
Adelson, for his part, said formal offers were
never forthcoming, and he doesn't regret not seeing a big payday after five years at Digg. Regarding Digg's future, "The jury is out," Adelson said
this week at FailCon -- a conference with the tagline, "Embrace Your Mistakes. Build Your Success."
Meanwhile, it looks like Digg's loss is Silicon Valley's gain. "As I'm hearing that the talent pool of experienced engineers in the Bay
Area is currently in short supply, this layoff might be a boon for local startups looking to add skilled staff," writes TechCrunch's Alexia Tsotsis. Cue the vultures.