We hear Cablevision's much-heralded acquisition of blog network Gothamist might be imploding. That would certainly help explain why Gothamist is trying to hire its own sales guy, a month after news of its supposed acquisition.

Gothamist was reportedly being sold for $5 million to $6 million in late March, to the Rainbow Media subsidiary of Cablevision. One month later, Gothamist posted a job listing for a sales executive to sell ads across its 14 city news sites. Gothamist LLC did not previously have a full-time salesperson—the new hire will report directly to publisher and listed ad contact Jake Dobkin—and it's odd, to say the least, to hire one in the middle of being acquired by a media company with its own sales staff. So we figure that when Gothamist writes "we're beginning to interview people next week," that it's intended as much to send a signal to Cablevision as to provide information to job candidates.

Who knows what might have Cablevision stalling. It might have turned up something it didn't like in due diligence, or maybe Gothamist's notoriously feisty publisher found he couldn't get along with Cablevision's notoriously feisty boss. Color us intrigued—and let us know if you hear anything.

[Photo of Dobkin (left) via Flickr; photo of Dolan (right) via Getty Images]