This is the problem with raising so much VC money, especially at a post-$100 million valuation (and dreams of an IPO). There's no way Digg can get the revenue

This is the problem with raising so much VC money, especially at a post-$100 million valuation (and dreams of an IPO). There's no way Digg can get the revenue necessary to repay their investors (or even be profitable with their bloated staff), without having to resort to actions like these. Having just a skyscraper ad isn't going to cut it. By essentially allowing their sponsors to decide what's going to be on their front page, they've changed digg from a crowdsourced editorial board to a sponsored RSS feed. I can't remember the last time a .com made such a shortsighted decision....I can't see digg even being around in a few years after this.