Pharyngula's PZ Myers mum over National Geographic takeover of ScienceBlogs

Pharyngula blog

Will he stay or will he go?

​Prolific, popular science blogger and University of Minnesota professor PZ Myers started a torrent of chatter when he announced that a "prestigious national magazine" had purchased his forum, ScienceBlogs.com.

The buyer turned out to be National Geographic.

Now, the question is whether Myers will stay on board.

In a post on his wildly popular Pharyngula blog, where he expounds loudly and frequently about everything from atheism to cephalopods, Myers wrote that he was not sure he'd stay along, and that a lot would have to fall into place for him to want to.

"I sure haven't signed any contract with this organization yet, so it's still entirely possible that I'll just fly off my own way," Myers wrote. "Your input will be a factor, so speak up here, and I'll listen. No matter what, though, things will not be the same, and there will be changes coming this summer."

National Geographic announced that it had acquired Seed Media Group, the parent company of ScienceBlogs, yesterday afternoon. Here's the magazine's brief statement:

National Geographic has assumed management of day-to-day operations for Scienceblogs.com, expanding a relationship with Seed Media Group that started when National Geographic took on ad sales responsibility for Scienceblogs.com in 2009.

Myers is by far the most popular blogger at ScienceBlogs, and his words carry a lot of weight. Last year, he helped raise such a stink about PepsiCo being given a sponsorship deal to blog right along with him and other contributors that the deal was spiked. And his frequent and caustic attacks on religion and so-called intelligent design bring with them a lot of traffic and comment.

So what he decides to do will undoubtedly have an effect on the site's continued success. We asked him what he thought of the takeover. Here's what he wrote back:

"I can't talk about it yet!"

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Previously:

• Pharyngula's PZ Myers pissed at PepsiCo's ScienceBlog
• PZ Myers addresses the idiots on the Internet
• PZ Myers speaks out on the war on science, intelligent design, and squid sex