February 19th, 2006

Blogs Will NOT Save Old Media

by Scott Karp

Michael Arrington declares that BlogBurst Can Save Big (print) Media. To suggest that the lack of blog content is all that ails Old Media is deeply naive. Old Media needs to follow bloggers into the new content creation frontier, but that in itself will NOT solve the problem of business models.

I will give BlogBurst credit for the understanding that the blogosphere needs a human filter to extract value.

But why do publishers need BlogBurst as a middleman? Why can’t publishers hire an editor whose job it is to go out into the blogosphere and pull in the best and most relevant content, which is already easily and freely available through RSS feeds?

Really, despite Michael Arrington’s disclaimer, the headline of his post is such shameless promotion. If TechCrunch is going to maintain it’s reputation, Michael needs to maintain his critical eye and resist the temptation to act like a boxing promoter.

I should close by making it clear that my skepticism does not diminish my interest in BlogBurst — I’m all for exploring new models and new approaches. And if BlogBurst can bridge the gap between Old Media and New Media, then more power to them.

It’s the over-promising and hyping that I object to (i.e. my issue is with Michael, not BlogBurst).

UPDATE
Ian Forrester points out in reference to my question about why publishers need a middleman to leverage blog content:

Agreed, but for some reason this does not happen. I can’t work out why, theres already enough tools to keep a track of whats going on in a given subject and RSS can make these things more automated.

And he’s right, of course. Perhaps most Old Media publishers do need to outsource this function, and BlogBurst will be able to capitalize on their laziness or inability to evolve. Perhaps it makes sense to have someone specialize in editing blog content, but that would suggest that blog content stays over here and Old Media content stays over there, which doesn’t make much sense either. I will say that BlogBurst’s outsourcing has the advantage of being a solution for publishers right out of the box, which certainly has its advantages.

Topics: Blogging | Blogs | Media Economics | Online Publishing | Print Publishing | Traditional Media

  • Pete,

    I agree that Mike's over-enthusiasm for some ideas does not mean TechCrunch isn't a net value-add for Web 2.0. In the case of BlogBurst, the content of his post was perfectly useful and objective -- it was only the title that screamed hype -- but that is what attacts attention.

    And I think BlogBurst has all the appearances of a step in the right direction, which is why it's a shame to over-hype it. I'm sure the BlogBurst folks didn't ask Mike to use that post title, and I tried to make it clear in the post above that while I have some questions about their value proposition, I look forward to evaluating their service.

    And of course it's fine for Edgeio to get good press -- it's just that the measured assessment of potential, as in your comment, often don't appear in headlines or posts. Web 2.0 would have more credibility in my mind if the discussions was more "Interesting, let's check it out" and less "WOW! Check this out!"

    Oh, and Quicktags is a Wordpress plug-in: http://aboutme.lmbbox.com/lmbb...

  • Scott,

    I agree that Mike can be overly enthusiastic about a lot of bad ideas (3Bubbles is the most recent thing we disagreed on), but ultimately I think he's doing a great service for everyone. I've yet to fully grok BlogBurst, but I think it might be a step in the right direction. Maybe when I take a closer look I'll change my mind.

    Oh yeah, and I used the eBay Killer line over a week ago in a post called Edgeio - Mike's Little eBay Killer. The phrase is said half-jokingly - nobody thinks that Edgeio will truly be a threat to eBay, but hundreds of decentralized sites just like it might eventually force eBay to think hard about its closed, centralized model.

    PS. I like the Quicktags menu on your comment form. Very easy to use.

  • Shannon Beliew

    Re: "why do publishers need BlogBurst as a middleman?"

    It's true that publications could simply assign one of their editors to find relevant blog content, but by the time the publisher and blogger exchange emails and come to an agreement, the relevance of the post may be long gone. BlogBurst guarantees that the blogger has already agreed to be published, so publishers can use whatever content they find, as soon as they find it.

    That said, I completely agree that the incentive of "visibility and exposure" will be appealing only to beginning or casual bloggers. Mid- to top-level bloggers will need some financial incentive.

  • I couldn't agree more, Scott. TechCrunch would be a lot better if it looked at things with a somewhat more critical eye -- I for one would find it more useful. But then, maybe that's not what it's for. I find it interesting that on tech.memeorandum right now, the posts about Mike's party and how great it was are mixed in with posts about Edgeio and how great it is (an "eBay killer," one site calls it). Is one affecting the other? Undoubtedly.

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