Blogging Inc
Whether it be neighborhood bloggers writing on key local issues around your neighborhood, or domain-specific experts covering on the latest trends in technology, media or advertising, the role that blog content is playing in the way we digest news and information is undoubtedly increasing.
In my mind, it was these vertical-focused experts that precipitated this increase – people with valid and expressive opinions to share found a direct route to a captive audience. The concept of unedited blog content gradually became more palatable (to audience, media managers and advertisers) and so the volume of legitimate bloggers grew, and with it the breadth of topics.
As content volumes grew, so did the suite of tools available to support this new breed of content creators – easy-to-use blogging platforms, tools to manage your comments, even ads to plug-in to help you make money – every bell and whistle you can imagine.
Today, blog content has infiltrated even the most old-school of media outlets. Some have made the leap themselves, others are getting valuable support from aggregators like outside.in. Many journalists now blog to support the edited content that they are paid to deliver each day, establishing personal ‘brands’ built around their views and perspectives.
So what happens next? Clearly, news coverage is at a fork in the road. Traditional newspapers are struggling to support ailing print businesses, and figure out a profitable model for an online-only business.
I think it might just be time for Blogging inc – the creation of a complete blogging enterprise to compete head on with the traditional news and media reporting.
At its core, Blogging Inc would be a platform of centralized tools to support an extensive network of freelance blog journalists, creating content in whatever format they choose (text, photo, video). Imagine analysis tools to consistently tag content, aggregation technology to pull related content into one place, a centralized commenting system tying related conversations together across geographic and topic barriers - all these tools in one place, with one owner, creating a true 360 degree view of every news story. The platform and content all underpinned by a democratic ad network, paying content creators based on views and ratings for their content, and potentially a range of subscription based premium services.
The platform could actively support the creation of new blogs – adding more voices to local reporting across the US, as well as in other countries where blogging is still a nascent activity. The platform would make it easy for you to get your content on line, and the tools would make sure it got filtered into the right places.
The best part is that all these elements exist today – tools like outside.in, technorati, zemanta, disqus and blogads could form the platform – maybe even throw the soon-to-be available everyblock assets too. The platform could support great blog content from existing networks like gothamist and curbed, as well as the 10s of thousands of independent bloggers that already create content today. Add a platform tie-in with the likes of tumblr or SixApart to foster new content creation and you have an end-to-end news and information agency.
Then the only question is who could pull this together, and who would run the thing. I am sure that we all have perspectives on that.
