Condé Nast is considering spinning off social news site Reddit, MediaMemo is reporting. The publisher would continue to own the site, which it bought five years ago, "but it's talking to
investors about selling a stake," reports
MediaMemo's Peter Kafka.
"Sources tell me it is floating a $200 million valuation," Kafka writes. Last summer, Reddit was doing more than 400 million page views a month, but has since shot up to a billion. The theory,
according to Kafka, is that "Taking Reddit outside of Condé Nast's corporate structure would make the site that much more valuable, and would give it a better chance to compete for capital,
managers and employees alongside the likes of zippy startups like Quora, StackExchange, etc." What's more, "The employee issue is particularly acute for Reddit right now, as most of its original team
has left the company and the site is now operating with a bare-bones staff." Sources close to Condé Nast's tell Kafta that the spin-off was being considered before the most recent round of
departures.