Mark Glaser has an interesting post on the narrowing gap between bloggers and traditional journalists. As Mark points out, the distinction is less relevant more than ever. Traditional journalists blog, they write shorter articles, they post more frequently and they invite comments – all things the bloggers first demonstrated had appeal. Big blogs have Editors, Sales professionals and operate more like savvy publishers everyday.
I don’t even think of the big blog sites as blogs, they’re more like micro-publishers. They’re businesses. They worry about page-views, their brands and they sell sponsorships/ advertising on their sites at very high CPM’s. From our vantage point, this all makes sense. Why should the media industry evolve any differently than other industries where we’ve seen this phenomenon before (Music, Consumer Package Goods, Grocery Stores just to name a few)? In our widgets, we’ve already started adding some “micro-publishers” into our Related Media quadrant, thus moving them out of the Related Blogs quadrant. We’re not sure that’s the right approach but we feel like it gives some “traditional” blogs a better opportunity for exposure while not penalizing traditional media sites nor the larger blogs.
How do you think about this?
Sphere Blog
I like this move, I think there is little difference between some micro-publishers and ‘traditional media’ so it is almost unfair to expect individual bloggers to compete with the sites which have ‘staff.’
That said, what is going to be the criteria for a micro publisher? readers, number of staff …
Comment by newslite — February 29, 2008 @ 1:49 pm |
Thanks for sharing your thoughts – to be straight forward and transparent, we don’t have a “criteria” as of yet. It’s more instinctive. How would you differentiate?
Comment by sphere — February 29, 2008 @ 9:56 pm |
=)
Happy Birthday Tony!!!!!
I’ll check back to see what the content of the blog is….if it’s at all IT-techy I’ll pass the word.
I feel like I just found a secret clubhouse!!!!!!!
Comment by julie — March 3, 2008 @ 9:58 pm |
I also wonder how you make a distinction between a pro and a novice other than seeing what fruit it bears. Some bloggers will be better than journalists and vice versa. I judge what I read by what it means to me, pro or not.
thanks for the widget for my page and happy birthday!
Comment by hulaman — March 5, 2008 @ 9:32 pm |
it’s time for the journalists to find new jobs!
Comment by underground — March 8, 2008 @ 12:30 am |
I think this is a great move. I’ve held masthead positions with several entertainment magazines, and I received my BA in Journalism from a top-25 J School. Just because I don’t write for a print pub now or a big site doesn’t mean I don’t have similar training, skill or ethics. On behalf of all “bloggers” out there with similar background, thank you.
Comment by Jonas — March 25, 2008 @ 9:49 pm |
Thanks – we’re big fans of creating a merit system that elevates different voices.
Comment by sphere — March 25, 2008 @ 9:57 pm |
I was just wondering if I might use your “attack of the blogs” image for my post on some religious journalist awards! 😉
It’s a great image — and it makes an excellent point.
Many thanks, Elizabeth
Comment by Elizabeth Evans — September 28, 2009 @ 2:24 pm |