Readers of the Crikey email and of this blog might well wonder what is going on at the organisation that pays my retainer.

Over the last week I have had to write two stories about events within Crikey. Last week I wrote about a $50,000 cut in the contributor budget, and today I had to announce the departure of the editor, Jonathan Green, for a new position with the ABC.

It is ticklish writing about one’s own media organisaton. So far as possible I’ve tried to research and write the stories in the same way as I would any other, but there are always nice lines to be drawn between what one knows as a friend and colleague, what one suspects, what one has on the record and what the gossip network says.

Crikey is changing, there is no doubt – but I believe the intention of the proprietors is to change the business side without adversely affecting the editorial.

While it is not vastly profitable, Crikey is now a significant media presence and some of the changes of the last few weeks seem to be about trying to make it part of a more serious and hard-nosed business, with room for expansion.

Hence the amalgamation, now under way, between Smartcompany and Private Media Partners, which owns Crikey. The two companies have until now shared office space and shareholders, but have had a very different “vibe”.

Smartcompany is about entrepreneurs - all smart and glossy and making money. Crikey is, or has been, a ratty, irreverent pissing-into-the-tent kind of publication.

How will the two go together? Particularly since Amanda Gome, the founder of Smartcompany, is now CEO of Crikey? It remains to be be seen.

It seems to me that whatever the appearances, the amalgamation is not intended to effect the Crikey ‘vibe’ or editorial direction. Publisher and co-owner of the two companies, Eric Beecher, says he does not intend to make big changes in the editorial content. Green’s departure was at a time of his own choosing, and not initiated by Beecher.

Green’s departure is natural enough. He has done the job for three years, which is probably enough for anyone. Putting out Crikey is relentless – a daily lunchtime deadline, a small staff,  lots of controversy and shit. During Green’s time in the job the website has also been completely redeveloped, leading to the discovery of a separate, younger and more web-savvy audience than the subscribers to the email. But the subscription email still pays most of the bills. Crikey is therefore a hybrid model between paid content and free content. It is both an experiment, and at the same time a working media organisation with all the pressures that entails.

A great deal of attention will naturally focus on who the next editor of Crikey will be. Green’s deputy, Sophie Black, has often filled in for him with when he has been away or on holiday. She would be the natural internal candidate, and her appointment would be a clear tick of approval for  current directions.

On the other hand, with other media organisations in a sorry state, there will be no lack of impressive applicants should the position be advertised externally. I was telephoned by three people today inquiring about the job, and I’m not the right person to talk to.

Meanwhile Green’s new job is interesting in itself, signalling that the ABC is taking on publications like  The Punch and the National Times and, for that matter, Crikey itself.

This afternoon the ABC put out a news release announcing that Green would be the editor of a new online opinion and analysis site, launching next month.

Jonathan will lead a team of ABC writers, including Annabel Crabb, who joins the ABC in December, as well as commissioning expert opinion and analysis from contributors outside the ABC.

I wish Green well. He has been a good editor for Crikey and working for him has been both stimulating and fun.  I’ll miss him.

As for what happens next – watch this space.