Social Networking news and information

Or, this could have been titled, what's Jason Calacanis doing after leaving AOL?

Word on the street is that this successful blogosphere gazillionaire is considering starting up his first baby, Silicon Alley Reporter.  paidContent's Rafat Ali, once the managing editor at Silicon Alley had this to say about the current state of the world they'd be reporting on:

City Journal estimates that the digital media industry shrank in New York by 30 to 50 percent during the post-9/11 recession, leaving a still-substantial 80,000 to 100,000 digital jobs, generating up to $8 billion in annual salaries.

The people involved include Calacanis, Kevin Ryan and Nick Douglas (recently fired from Gawker), however, it appears the VC isn't clamoring yet.  Don't count these guys out.  I've yet to see Jason struggle at getting VC and Nick built a sizeable following while at Gawker.  I don't know Kevin Ryan yet, but if he's being linked to these guys I'm sure I will learn quite a bit about him soon enough.