Turning BLOGS into a BUSINESS? Why, who ever heard of such a thing!
But there are serious attempts to do so by individual bloggers and people who’ve signed on to a group concept. And here’s one of the most promising ones yet, via Roger Simon:
Charles Johnson, Marc Danziger and I have been sneaking around over the last few months, trying to turn blogs into a business. We have enlisted some others with names familiar to you with the intention of working in two areas – aggregating blogs to increase corporate advertising and creating our own professional news service.
With respect to advertising, we do not wish to go into competition with Henry Copeland’s BlogAds, which we fully support. (Some of us even have them!) We are working on another model that will sell ads en masse, not blog-by-blog. We expect this model to go live within a few weeks.
As for the Blog News Service, a lot of work needs to be done and a lot of questions answered. An editorial board consisting of Glenn Reynolds, PowerLine, Lawrence Kudlow, Hugh Hewitt, Marc Cooper, Wretchard of the Belmont Club and Tim Blair, as well as the founders, is already in place with other bloggers in many countries having signed on as contributors.
This is no way meant to be exclusive. We invite you all to join us. On the advertising end, any blogger — whether political or not — is welcome. We would be delighted to place ads on your blog and pay you for them. You may find out more and, we hope, join by simply emailing us….
Click on Roger Simon’s link above to get his email address.
This could be something that would work. Of course the key is going to be getting a cross-section of bloggers, representing all kinds of weblogs (not just political) and ideologies.
Media blogger Matt Sheffield, on his great new blog, adds this:
My take: newspapers are to computers what news is to data. The first two exist only for the sake of the second. Data processing is why we use computers. News is why people read the newspaper.For decades, the tech world has been continually updating its data delivery systems, now, the media world needs to do the same with news delivery. As a physical medium, news publications are doomed, as a virtual medium, they have a chance if they adapt. Otherwise, Pajama Media and its successors and rivals will dispose of them.
Indeed: in 1982, as a newly hired San Diego Union staff reporter (I had been working on the Wichita Eagle-Beacon before that and before that wrote from New Delhi, India and Madrid, Spain), a top journalism prof from LA sneered and told me: “You’re a dinosaur. 10 years from now no one will be reading newspapers. It’ll all be on computer.”
He was WRONG. Many early attempts by newspapers go beyond paper news delivery fizzled. But in recent years, with the huge growth of the Internet, many newspaper circulations are either stagnant or falling and they’re offering content online in a different way then they envisioned years ago (for one thing, mostly for FREE).
So perhaps part of this arrogant person’s sneering prediction is coming true: papers aren’t dying but they seem infected with what is LITERALLY a “terminal” disease unless they adapt. It seems like Pajama Media is looking at all of the issues this will entail thoughtfully, cautiously and creatively. And — given this carefulful, thoughtful planning — their long term prospects, if they launch as expected, could be bright..
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.