Paid Content has an article on business potential of weblogs and how some of the niche weblogs can be acquired by the more traditional media companies. The article has a list of some probable M&A marriages. For e.g. Corante Blog being taken over by Wall Street Journal Online, Gawker by New York Observer etc. It also talks of few blogs that were bought by semi-academic institutions in 2002.
...Romenesko's MediaNews and E-Media Tidbits, bought out by the Poynter Institute; Cyberjournalist.net, by the American Press Institute; and Arts and Letters Daily, bought out by The Chronicle of Higher Education (Wasn't TVSpy a weblog before it was bought by Vault.com?)
The article makes clear what they mean by being bought, which is quite important.
...And let me explain the term "bought" here: this may not necessarily mean exchange of money, but could be a package where the blogger gets a salaried position, or a certain cut out of the ad/subscription revenues and other such combinations. As Mark Glaser recently wrote on OJR: "Best-Case Scenario [in 2003]: Smart bloggers get their due, become famous, and can get paid for what they do. Media companies get it, and start assigning blogs as real jobs and not just extra-curricular activities." Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment