Wetpaint today laid off nine staffers -- including co-founders Kevin Flaherty and Alex Berg -- as the 4-year-old Seattle operator of wikis refocuses efforts on its own online publishing ventures. It now employs 30 people.

The heavily-funded company isn't saying too much about the online publishing effort, which includes new business models for the battered media industry. But a company spokesman -- who labeled the change a strategic shift -- said Wetpaint is currently working on a stealth mode project that they plan to publicly disclose in the coming weeks.

Wetpaint -- which has raised a total of $40 million from DAG Ventures, Accel Partners, Frazier Technology Ventures and others -- has encountered some hiccups before. Just five months ago, the company reduced its staff by 27 percent in part due to the slumping online advertising market.

At the time of those cuts, Wetpaint said that it planned to refocus efforts on the big ticket entertainment Web sites that drive much of the company's traffic. Those sites have greater revenue potential than some of the smaller niche-oriented sites that Wetpaint users have created over the years for non-profit groups, bands, weddings and other low traffic audiences.

With the latest change, Wetpaint appears to be moving more aggressively into becoming a content producer in its own right. That could create some conflict, since Wetpaint already provides social media tools to entertainment companies such as HBO, Fox and Showtime.

Last month, Wetpaint expanded a deal with MSN Entertainment to provide TV fan sites for shows such as "Dancing with the Stars" and "Mad Men." It is unclear whether Wetpaint will try to seek more deals such as those going forward or try to create its own online entertainment news channel.

The Wetpaint spokesman said that it will continue support all wiki sites -- which stood at more than 1.5 million earlier this year -- in the network.

The company -- which raised a $25 million venture round in May 2008 -- remains in a fortunate cash position, according to the spokesman. It continues to be led by Ben Elowitz, who previously co-founded online jewelry retailer Blue Nile.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. On Twitter @johnhcook.