Reddit, the news-sharing site that prides itself on free speech, has been freed from the Condé Nast brand that bought it five years ago, Erik Martin, reddit general manager, wrote on the company's blog.

Erik's post said that reddit's traffic created technical, organizational and growing pains that restrained the company from growing appropriately under the Condé Nast brand.

However, Erik told LAUNCH, reddit always maintained its own servers and technical side but Condé Nast is "a big complicated media company and we wanted to get back to being a startup, and move fast."

LAUNCH has asked Condé Nast for comment. We will update if we receive a response.

Day-to-day operations won't change at reddit, but since both reddit and Condé Nast are owned by Advance Publications, the two will be sister companies, Erik says.

Reddit has begun searching for a CEO who will mesh with reddit culture and will be as passionate as its employees, Erik told LAUNCH.

"reddit now has the kind of resources it needs to continue improving and supporting the community's experience far into the future," Erik wrote. "We love reddit, and any change to something you love can be scary, but we believe this is a sound and exciting change. reddit is on solid footing to help explore the unknown world in front of us."

Condé Nast bought reddit in 2006 for an undisclosed amount but reported to be around $12.8M. Especially since the acquisition, reddit's content, which its users upload and self-moderate -- has come under fire for some of its less than savory content including such subeddits as /r/picsofdeadkids and /r/beatingwomen [ see our related story ].

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