Last week I got an email from Donna Bogatin announcing that: “After 1500 posts under the Digital Markets @ ZDNet Banner I have taken the independent blogger plunge.” That’s right, she would be leaving her stable post at ZDNet to go independent at Insider Chatter.
Great, I thought… then I wondered: “hmm, haven’t we seen this before?”
George Shaheen 2.0?
During the first wave of the boom, we saw many folks give up the stability of cushy jobs and established companies to chase their digital dreams. It could be argued that the poster child for that phenomenon was George Shaheen. Shaheen, of course, quit his plush, $4M/year job as CEO of Accenture Consulting for the top job at Webvan. That was a disaster, he quit shortly thereafter.
At the micro level: of course, a lot of that outcome had to do with the fundamental flaw in some of the dot com business plans. Webvan, like Pets.com, had an underlying problem in its business model. I want to touch mellons, before I buy them. Others want to squeeze cucumbers, the point is: we might order Russian brides via the Web, but mellons and cucumbers, those we won’t order online.
At the macro level, the Web has indeed changed: broadband usage is at 53%; marketers are spending 5.9% of their budgets online, yet people spend 25% of their time online… there’s a lot more substance today than there ever was last time around.
It’s Different This Time, I Swear
Last night, the site Rafat Ali started, Paid Content turned five years old. It’s important, not because we like anniversaries, but because that means Ali started a site devoted to digital media in 2002.
2002? March 2000 marked Nasdaq’s peak. 2001 was horrible and not everyone really knew how bad it was. 2002 was arguably worst. 2003 was the beginning of the comeback, but for Ali to start his site in 2002 meant one of two things: a) it was really impossible to land a job reporting on the casualties in the space and b) he understood that over time, things would get better.
Between 2002 and 2007, Ali launched more sites under the Content Next Media banner and even raised VC financing from none other than Alan Patricof. He even assembled a board. Read our latest on “Does the Addition of Larry Kramer Mean that CBS Will Buy Paid Content?” here.
Either it was the return of the good times or we were in another crazy mode: why would a VC fund a bunch of content websites on the business of media? Well, Ali’s properties had become the most influential of the lot, leading others to take the plunge.
Enter Om Malik
Om Malik comes to mind: he gave up a nice, stable job at Business 2.0 to launch GigaOm, which today boasts a handful of sites covering everything from digital media, to broadband and wireless.
Somewhere in that landscape sits Michael Arrington, whose Tech Crunch empire rose with the rise of Web 2.0 fascination and to some extent remains vulnerable to its crash, or hype. Rumor has it that Arrington raised financing too, from Bessemer’s David Cowan and First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman.
Clearly, Ali, Malik and Arrington are onto something, but with the VC money comes expectations, and I’m personally not sure all three storylines will end well. Well, it will end well for the VCs, but not for the entrepreneurs.
Ali, Malik and Arrington were incidentally profiled in a recent Business Week article on the new guard of trade publishing. Incidentally, all launched networks.
Are they blogs? blogzines? ezines? Who knows. Who cares.
As the web continues to morph into whatever it’s become, it’s clear that many are going for a “Context is King” theme, a motif we’ve covered quite a bit (also the title of my 4th book, what’s my 3rd book, a little ditty called “Rupert and Me”, maybe).
The point is, all three followed the rule of diversification and have numerous websites underneath their portfolios.
Partially the reason for that is that blogging ain’t easy. And it ain’t pretty. It’s also becoming very cluttered and noisy.
Two Comparables?
Of course, Weblogs Inc. proved that the blog network model can work, having sold out for $25M to Time Warner’s AOL, and Nick Denton’s Gawker Media is probably worth a decent sum by having held out (multiples today are much better than they were in 2005, when Weblogs sold, after all).
Incidentally, Denton just lured Business 2.0’s Owen Thomas to Valleywag, so he could go back to being full-time CEO of Gawker, which naturally made the Gawker faithful cheerful.
Let’s Get into the Act
With this I guess it’s not surprising to see so many writers and business professionals get into the act.
When I found myself as the odd man out of a men’s online publisher and sought to start a new company, having a number of blogs that fit with the greater corporate product assortment made sense, so I launched BloggerMojo.com within Mojo Supreme to reinforce the “context is king” mantra, but having one blog is not an obvious option, yet having a blog network is a daunting task.
Dawn of a New Era?
The point is: if online publishing first leveled the playing field between magazines and online ezines, blogging software has nuked all barriers of entry and blurred the lines by cutting all the way down to the bone. It’s almost as if everyone has to blog, even heroes from yesteryear.
When I saw Henry Blodget get into the act, I was happy. Blodget was one of the most noteworthy stock analysts - for better or worse - and seeing him open up on Internet Outsider was nice.
Last week I saw another legend step into the ring: Marc Andreessen, who needs no introduction as the man who basically have us the World Wide Web’s first successful browser, Mosaic/Netscape Navigator. Here’s his blog.
Andreessen’s entry is noteworthy because it shows that if someone has the cachet and brand name, they can become successful as bloggers quickly.
A few days into blogging, Marc made a post called “Blogging by the Numbers,” in it he mentioned that after 4.5 days of posts, he’d made 7 posts which had garnered 48,562 pageviews and more importantly, that implied he had consumed 21 Corona’s. But more importantly, a lot of people around the Web would link to him and essentially create an audience for him. Of course, there’s not too many Marc Andreessen’s out there, and all of the audience-building is deserved… but it does raise a key nuance:
If like Bogatin you want to leave an established soapbox for a new one, you better have a plan in mind, because writing for an established brand like ZDNet gives you instant credibility. When I launched this blog, I wrote what I write now then, but it took me months to get any kind of traction. It’s a constant challenge to come up with bigger, better and bolder posts without losing your credibility by going too far. My “tipping point” came when Fred Wilson linked up my post on YouTube’s potential profitability and revenue making potential.”
To me, it was odd: I had written many such analytical posts, but it took that link from an established blogger and respected businessperson to get others to link up to my blog. Mainly, it opened my eyes to “my voice”and angle. We’ve always been “At the intersection of Wall Street, Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley,” but that validation drove it home and made me realize that I had to pursue deeper down that terrain.
Why is this relevant, because Wilson has really been showcasing Andreessen since he launched his blog (which is great because that’s how I found out that Marc was blogging, and his addition to the blogosphere is a very nice addition to an otherwise stale and repetitive landscape). Today Fred summarized the blogger dilemma well:
Be careful Marc, you are setting a very high bar which is going to be really hard to maintain.
But I hope you can keep it up because you are giving yourself, your thoughts, and your ideas to the web at large and I am loving every minute of it.
So upon all of this, I had to ask Donna some questions.
1) What made you leave ZDNET?Donna Bogatin: “Practice what you preach,” as I often suggest to “do no evil Google.” Among the many things I have “preached” at my Digital Markets Blog over the past year is the need for the Web world to operate more independently. For example, Ask.com ought to be more independent from Google AdWords sales and the blogosphere ought to be more independent from Google AdSense.
From a personal perspective, it is time for me to blog independently. I launched InsiderChatter.com as my new blogging home.
2) Honestly, what % of people said “go for it? and “don’t give up the stability?
Donna Bogatin: I have a 1500 “real deal” stories track record under the ZDNet banner.
When CNET VP of editorial, Dan Farber, congratulated me last month on my one year anniversary of blogging for ZDNet, he underscored that I have “covered the waterfront on emerging trends and the people at the heart of the business Internet” to conclude “the digital markets scenario she documents in her blog has played out.”
Going forward, I can best capitalize on the momentum I have developed by blogging for my own account.
The principle advantages of blogging as a freelancer within a blog network are a) infrastructure and b) distribution. The turnkey appeal of a blogging network, however, is offset by many downsides, including:
a) Bloggers’ individual brands are overpowered by the network’s brand,
b) Bloggers have no say in the editorial direction of the network,
c) Bloggers have no quality control over other network content,
d) Bloggers relinquish control over their own blogging destinies,
e) Bloggers do not fully benefit from the network fruits of their labor…
3) What was ZDNet’s reaction?
Donna Bogatin: Dan Farber thanked me for the service I have provided CNET over the past 13 months and wished me the best in all my future endeavors.
4) Which blogs do you read?
Donna Bogatin: I read all the usual “A-list” suspects, to keep up on “the conversation.” What I find most intriguing, however, is to spend time browsing blog search engines. Every day, I come upon new “unsung” bloggers that provide direct from the field news and insights.
5) Are things that dire for newspapers or magazines (offline)?
Donna Bogatin: Yes, but not just offline, and not just because of Google News or Craigslist.
Craig Newmark speaks of the need for “the fourth estate” to speak truth to power, but editorial integrity is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, both in the old media world and in the new.
Whatever happened to “The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics”? It is optional! From the The Wall Street Journal, to The New York Times, to The Washington and New York Posts, professional “journalists” continue to be “used” as public relations conduits by the companies and individuals they ought to be giving the “third degree” to.
What’s more, as journalism refugees seek safe harbor in blogging networks online, a “fair trade” quid pro quo notion of “reporting” risks corrupting the blogosphere as well.
6) Are there any blogs you’d give up to write independently for? If they made you an offer you could not resist…
Donna Bogatin: In announcing my new blog, Greg Sterling headlined: “Donna Bogatin Breaks Out.” As Greg surmised, I do indeed plan on cherishing my new found independence. Who could resist an irresistible offer, though!
7) What are the plans for your independent blog?
Donna Bogatin: I continue my tradition of writing passionately, and often, about what is at the heart of the business Internet. The only thing that has changed in my blogging is my blog URL.
We wish her well and I look forward to her sharing her experiences blogging independently over the next few weeks and months.
Tags: Blogs|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Jun 13th
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