Conde Nast is looking into the possibility of selling a part of link sharing site Reddit, according to a report.
According to All Things D's Peter Kafka, Conde Nast would still own the site, which is valued at around $200 million.
"Taking Reddit outside of Conde Nast's corporate structure would make the site that much more valuable, and would give it a better chance to compete for capital, managers, and employees alongside the likes of zippy startups," Kafka said.
Reddit lingered in Digg's shadow for a while, but has taken off in the past year. In 2010, Reddit's traffic grew threefold, and it racked up more than a billion page views in the month of January alone.
It's hard not to make a comparison between Reddit and Digg. The sites offer some very similar services, and many say that Reddit's growth could be attributed to Digg's troubled year. Digg infuriated its cult-like group of users after a controversial redesign in August. By September, with traffic down 26 percent in the U.S. and 34 percent in the U.K., it appeared that Digg was in danger of being buried. This fall Digg also trimmed its staff by 37 percent.
At its peak, social bookmarking site Digg had more than 40 million unique visitors per month, but the unpopular redesign served to alienate many users and caused a mass exodus.
Digg suffered another blow this week too. On Friday, Kevin Rose announced that he's leaving Digg in order to focus on a new startup, although its chief executive gave the news a positive spin.
Regardless of Digg's troubles, Reddit has continued to see growth in 2011.
"We love our Reddit asset, and it's a core asset for us, and it's getting more valuable every day," said Steve Newhouse, head of digital operations at Advance Publications, the company that owns Conde Nast.
Neither Conde Nast nor Advance will say anything more about the possibility of a sale. But if the rumors are true, it could have very lucrative results.