WebProNews

CondeNet, the Internet unit of Conde Nast publications, has just acquired SFO Media, the publisher of HotelChatter.com and Jaunted.com, and believe it or not, CondeNet appears to have a good sense of timing.

 HotelChatter.com

Of course, common sense would say that now's not a great time to focus on travel; between paying for food, fuel, and a mortgage, a lot of people seem to have their hands full with more mundane matters.  A decline in traffic to CondeNet's Concierge.com supports this line of thought.

Yet SFO's sites are doing okay, and Erick Schonfeld writes, "[T]he combined worldwide traffic of Jaunted and HotelChatter in March was about 875,000 unique visitors.  So two mildly successful blogs just doubled the advertising inventory that Concierge.com's sales people can sell."

The two mildly successful blogs might have sold for a bargain price, too, just because of the travel sector issue.  (Financial details remain undisclosed.)

Mark G. Johnson, the founder of SFO Media, will join CondeNet as part of the deal and continue running HotelChatter.com and Jaunted.com as standalone brands.