Crime site APB Online's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this week is the latest installment in the story of cutbacks,layoffs or shutdowns unfolding among many Alley Internet companies, especially content sites.

With APBnews.com launching a funding round with an albatross around its neck called the spring tech-stock sell-off, the award winning crime, justice and safety site had no choice but to seek protection from creditors.

Another example is Brandwise.com. Investors pulled the plug on the comparison-shopping site at the end of May after backers said enough. At the time of the announcement, the Alley start-up said it would take a couple months to decide whether to sell parts or all of its business, or re-position itself as a business-to-business play.

Even highly-regarded content site TheStreet.com, which provides insight and analysis for a range of investors, is laboring under a depressed stock price and a glut of competition. And not just from other financially focused news and information sites. It also goes head-to-head with investor information sites such as briefing.com, which has several layers of services that range from free to over $100 a year, much like TheStreet.com's revamped model.

Plus, in an already-glutted world of content plays, content aggregators such as Yodlee, otherwise known as screen-scrapers, have introduced a new realm of competition to the information sites. As the drumbeat grows for Web sites that are running out of cash or whose backers have run out of patience, some investors and market observers see a coming wave of consolidation. Investors who specialize in distressed assets are looking; and the APBnews.com petition may help clarify how to value those fuzzy content assets.

When buying content assets, what you're really buying is people and ideas, said Richard McCready, a director with NetStar Ventures, which has offices in New York City and Santa Monica, Calif. "That's what makes this a tough business. If it's an early stage company, that's what you've valuing, as opposed to accounts and revenue streams." Plus there's the question of who would want to buy those assets. "The cold, hard reality is that there isn't lot of value for what some of the these companies have created."

McCready said a lot of entrepreneurs were enticed into thinking they could make big money with content Web sites. "But content sites are very labor-intensive to produce; they're not that much different from starting a newspaper or broadcast network. Even offline that can be very intimidating."

With a wave of consolidation moving closer, Web plays providing content, but struggling with the cost of establishing brand online, are looking like good synergy plays for established offline media companies. The question hanging in the air, is what kind of value should investors pin on those assets called content.

Joe Krakoviak, a spokesman for APBnews.com, said he finds it ironic to hear such issues raised when just months ago, the capital markets valued the company at over $100 million, during earlier venture funding rounds. Then inside of a few weeks, investors said no, we want you to be profitable now, he added, despite a business model that included commerce revenue to go with advertising streams. APB Online's plan is to go into Chapter 11, and make the company attractive from a financial and legal prospective, said Krakoviak, by putting a reorganization plan together in a matter of weeks.