Robert Pittman, a former AOL official, has put his small web business, Daily Candy, up for sale - a deal that will likely become a measure for the pace and valuation of web deal making, writes The Wall Street Journal (via MediaBuyerPlanner). After buying a controlling stake in Daily Candy, which produces urbane email newsletters that make daily shopping, food and media recommendations, in 2003 for $3.5 million, Pittman could sell the business for more than $100 million.

Some potential buyers fear that all the best web properties have already been bought, and so the remaining buyers may have to pay high prices for marginal properties.

Publishers worry that advertising dollars are moving online and away from television, newspapers and magazines, as internet media transactions over the past 18 months have attracted top valuations. Electronic and traditional publishers are eager to acquire internet-advertising properties. Media players such as News Corp, Dow Jones & Co., and E.W. Scripps Co. have all recently made internet-related acquisitions.