NYT: A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip

[DeepModem Mom]

A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: May 8, 2005


DON'T ask Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media and its growing list of popular Web logs, about his empire. "People come up to me as if it's witty and say, 'How is the empire going?' " Mr. Denton said, "which is pretty pathetic."

Don't ask him about his business plan, either. He says he never had one. The only reason he formed the company, he said, was to make his network of blogs - which includes Gawker, the flagship chronicle of Manhattan news and gossip; Fleshbot, the thinking person's diary of smut; and about 10 other titles - more attractive to advertisers.

"It doesn't help with readers," he said. "It's actually a disadvantage, because it looks corporate."

At a time when media conferences like "Les Blogs" in Paris two weeks ago debate the potential of the form, and when BusinessWeek declares, as it did on its May 2 cover, that "Blogs Will Change Your Business," Mr. Denton is withering in his contempt. A blog, he says, is much better at tearing things down - people, careers, brands - than it is at building them up. As for the blog revolution, Mr. Denton put it this way: "Give me a break."...

***

For all of the stiff-arming and disdain that Mr. Denton brings to the discussion of this nonrevolution, however, there is no question that he and his team are trying to turn the online diarist's form - ephemeral, fast-paced and scathingly opinionated - into a viable, if not lucrative, enterprise. Big advertisers like Audi, Nike and General Electric have all vied for eyeballs on Gawker's blogs, which Mr. Denton describes as sexy, irreverent, a tad elitist and unabashedly coastal....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/business/yourmoney/08blog.html?pagewanted=all

[displacedtexan]

1. My concern with bloggers making $...

is that they will be constrained to the point of becoming either gossip columns (Drudge) or MSM-type reporters (no longer able to post any copyrighted image, etc.), who will only attract readers if they post breaking news stories.

The reason I like blogs is the individual citizen's perspective on an MSM news story... also, the uninhibited writing style.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. Bound to change if any of them end up making a lot of money

and are more concerend with their "reputation" and fame, than what they are typing/ saying, so to speak, on the uncensored fly. I expect the more famous and the more popular or familiar to succumb to that temptation and we will be back to non reporting or at the least reporting that is cautious, or held back, or pandering, for fear of losing their fame. Those who are not famous may strive for the same goal and use the same technique to become famous.

[Dover]

3. I'd settle for a real revolution in the mainstream media such as NYT

Is that gonna happen? Lol! GET A GRIP!

[rocktivity]

4. Anything the MSM has to say about the blogosphere

should be taken with a pillar of salt.

:headbang:
rocknation

[pretzel4gore]

7. plz use 'corporate media'...the whores aint 'mainstream'

they do effectively hog the spotlight, but it's to abet bushinc, so anything that grants them crooks legitimacy should be fought against...they're pushing bad dope (which is why the mediasluts hate marajuwanna; it's a too powerful antidote to bushevik bs, imho)

[w4rma]

10. I agree. (nt)

[Cha]

8. So true, Rock!

They are the dinasaurs..we are the Meteorite!

[pretzel4gore]

11. lol!

i love it....all them pea brains in their mountains of fat looking up at..."it's a boid, no it's a a!!! " Kaboom!

[democracyindanger]

5. Of course Denton is going to pooh-pooh the idea

If he says there is a "blog revolution", then he undercuts his own product. He knows that what makes his company so attractive to advertisers is that it's seen as being outside of the mainstream. If joins in on the promotion of blogs as a revolutionary step in marketing communication, then he's just another sellout.

[sweetheart]

6. They're scared

I can't much believe that bloggers as individual websites move much
earth, but when we united together... (and frankly, i "HATE" the word
"blogger" as it sounds like "boogger" (the sort of thing that nose
pickers eat), and it introduces it as if its's new, rather than simply
someone's writing.

I prefer "internet writer". Internet writers have shamed the MSM by
being hand's down better writers, being more honest, exposing more truth
and challenging orthodoxy, something the NYT hasn't done for a
buzillion years.

Their very jobs demand they shit on internet writers, as they've got to
justify why their substandard writing deserves customers and salaries.
All along, those of us who know better just smile and laugh as the
old paradigm crumbles. :-)

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Hmmm...sounds like Mr. Denton is pretty good at tearing things down too.