NineNine - You are giving way too much importance to the amateur vs professional debate and thinking about bloggers in terms of education level and ability to find "real" news. I could go off in a very long article about the power and profit a successful blog can bring the owner and the influence it can wield, but an example would be better. Take a look at TechCrunch sometime http://www.techcrunch.com/about-techcrunch/, although I'm sure you already know about it. It's were the MSM (Main Stream Media) takes a lot of their tech tips from and it's been featured in everything from CBS News to Business Week.
It's just a blog run by a very successful business man.
Another example see http://searchengineland.com/ It's another blog by Danny Sullevan. It was launched in December and ALREADY it's posts show up on google news. So when you search GOOGLE news his posts show up ABOVE THE MSM as news items. Talk about power.
Yes anyone can have a blog, but not everyone can write well enough or wants to devote enough time / energy to attract a following.
Blogs in many ways enable the possibility of writers to earn more and reach a wider audience. New publishing and add technology (google adsense, adbright, text link sales) enable writers to directly profit off their readers via targeted advertising without the need to be censored and influenced by middle man organizations that syndicate other people's writing. There will always be a place for some of the MSM, but many of the news papers, televisions news shows are now outdated and with the advance of new technology they're publishing business models will cease to exist.
There is increased competition, but with the cost for distribution and exposure skyrocketing downward if people like what you can find an audience six figure salaries funded by advertising dollars are in ready supply. You just have to find an audience and that's the hard part.
To relate this to a personal story - I launched a new blog last month. I'm not making any major money off it, but I was already approached for syndication by WebProNews in less then a month after launch. The articles they syndicate show up in Google and Yahoo news.
Blogs are here to stay and people are listening, if you like it or not. If you're a write new distribution channels and new technologies are opening more doors then they are closing! Keep writing!
That's my take anyways. I'm new to Slashdot (I use other social media and publishing sites). I hope my contributions here are welcomed here.
Slashdot Mirror
NineNine - You are giving way too much importance to the amateur vs professional debate and thinking about bloggers in terms of education level and ability to find "real" news. I could go off in a very long article about the power and profit a successful blog can bring the owner and the influence it can wield, but an example would be better. Take a look at TechCrunch sometime http://www.techcrunch.com/about-techcrunch/, although I'm sure you already know about it. It's were the MSM (Main Stream Media) takes a lot of their tech tips from and it's been featured in everything from CBS News to Business Week. It's just a blog run by a very successful business man. Another example see http://searchengineland.com/ It's another blog by Danny Sullevan. It was launched in December and ALREADY it's posts show up on google news. So when you search GOOGLE news his posts show up ABOVE THE MSM as news items. Talk about power. Yes anyone can have a blog, but not everyone can write well enough or wants to devote enough time / energy to attract a following. Blogs in many ways enable the possibility of writers to earn more and reach a wider audience. New publishing and add technology (google adsense, adbright, text link sales) enable writers to directly profit off their readers via targeted advertising without the need to be censored and influenced by middle man organizations that syndicate other people's writing. There will always be a place for some of the MSM, but many of the news papers, televisions news shows are now outdated and with the advance of new technology they're publishing business models will cease to exist. There is increased competition, but with the cost for distribution and exposure skyrocketing downward if people like what you can find an audience six figure salaries funded by advertising dollars are in ready supply. You just have to find an audience and that's the hard part. To relate this to a personal story - I launched a new blog last month. I'm not making any major money off it, but I was already approached for syndication by WebProNews in less then a month after launch. The articles they syndicate show up in Google and Yahoo news. Blogs are here to stay and people are listening, if you like it or not. If you're a write new distribution channels and new technologies are opening more doors then they are closing! Keep writing! That's my take anyways. I'm new to Slashdot (I use other social media and publishing sites). I hope my contributions here are welcomed here.