My, my. We are seeing some interesting times in the online publishing world, aren't we?
Mr Arrington of that widely admir'd and provocative pamphlet Techcrunch has discoursed at length about the coming juggernaut of the blog publishers. There's big venture capital money heading in the direction of the most promising guys, and a whole new way of thinking to go with it. Quoth Arrington:
So, what's happening here? We're in a transition phase.
Mr Arrington of that widely admir'd and provocative pamphlet Techcrunch has discoursed at length about the coming juggernaut of the blog publishers. There's big venture capital money heading in the direction of the most promising guys, and a whole new way of thinking to go with it. Quoth Arrington:
And writing good content is only half the battle. You have to figure out the complex, dynamic web of politics between bloggers and mainstream media before you post to know where to get support. And you'll need support in the form of links from other prominent bloggers. An early push can take a post and make it a headline on TechMeme, which leads to page views and notice by sponsors. But since blogging is almost by definition a conversation between bloggers, fights tend to break out over emotional issues. Cliques develop. Can you count on them to support you down the road?How are mainstream publishers reacting? They're trying to sponge free content off bloggers. Um, good luck with that guys.
So, what's happening here? We're in a transition phase.
When publishers first went online, and when new online publishers set
up, they basically recreated magazines and newspapers online - they
didn't create anything that was fundementally tailored to the new
medium. In fact, it's much like the early days of the printing press,
when many of the first books to roll off the presses were editions of
the same books that monks had been busy outputtting from their
scriptorums. It's just a symptom of thought processes that are mired in the technology of a rapidly passing age.
We're passed that stage. The new forms of publishing online are starting to emerge. Two things are happening - existing publishers are busy bolting on blogs and social media to the site of their printing press-inspired sites (guilty!) and new publishers are building sites based on new technology that really don't look much like the old style sites at all.
And I bet you something right now. The winners in this battle won't emerge with sites that look like existing big media sites at all. They'll be those who use the current and developing technologies to build media enterprises that interact with the communities they serve in fundementally different ways. That's why this is an exciting time to be in media companies.
But it's also a scary time. Arrington again:
We're passed that stage. The new forms of publishing online are starting to emerge. Two things are happening - existing publishers are busy bolting on blogs and social media to the site of their printing press-inspired sites (guilty!) and new publishers are building sites based on new technology that really don't look much like the old style sites at all.
And I bet you something right now. The winners in this battle won't emerge with sites that look like existing big media sites at all. They'll be those who use the current and developing technologies to build media enterprises that interact with the communities they serve in fundementally different ways. That's why this is an exciting time to be in media companies.
But it's also a scary time. Arrington again:
What I'd like to see, and even be a part of, is the blogger equivalent to the 1992 U.S. Mens Basketball Dream Team. That team could take CNET apart in a year, hire the best of the survivors there, and then move on to bigger prey.If you don't thrive on competition, now's a good time to contemplate a career change.
March 27, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply
Good post, Adam. What I'd like to know is if there are big media companies in the B2B space that are actually introducing new technologies and quickly? Seems the B2B sector - media providers and advertisers - is still working in a slow and conservative way.
March 27, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply
There are some - I'll try to post some examples later in the day.