Read all about it! Old media on the new
Readers of the Guardian this morning can digest the thoughts of Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, with their breakfast. He's got the blogging fever, has Iain. Inspired by the Rathergate and Easongate stories, he's now convinced that "Bloggers will rescue the right in Britain". "The internet could do more to change the level of political engagement than all the breast-beating of introspective politicians and commentators. A 21st century political revolution is now only a few mouse clicks away," he says. He's right, too.
But will the revolution be co-opted and commercialized until it becomes part of the establishment, as has happened so often before? The reason one asks is that yesterday, the New York Times Company became the biggest blogger of them all when it bought About.com for $410 Million. "About.com uses a network of about 500 experts to write online about hundreds of specialty topics, from personal finance to quilting to fly-fishing... Times Company officials said About.com would help diversify its online advertising base by adding 'cost per click' advertising, in which advertisers pay only when a reader clicks on an ad. Cost-per-click ads are the fastest-growing segment of online advertising." Indeed. Ask Google. The dot.com bust was well and truly buried yesterday.$410 million! That's real money.
Because the new media insurgency is happening in real time, things get old before they're allowed to be young and that's why the same New York Times has this front-page story today: "Tired of TiVo? Beyond Blogs? Podcasts Are Here". An excerpt: "And as bloggers have influenced journalism, podcasters have the potential to transform radio. Already many radio stations, including National Public Radio and Air America, the liberal-oriented radio network, have put shows into a podcast format. And companies are seeing the possibilities for advertising; Heineken, for example, has produced a music podcast." Expect to hear a Rainy Day podcast before long. Don't want to be left behind, and all that. Want to make sure the market value of this blog is right when the NYT comes bidding.
