October 15, 2005
Blog networks are news wires in waiting
So I got into a conversation, today, that had me both reminiscing about, and rethinking my prognostication from An Immodest Proposal: Where blogging and RSS are headed (or everything old is new again). No worries, true believers, I still believe that I'm on the right track. I just have some revisions that justified more than an "update" to the original post.To save time for those of you who haven't read the original post, I generally postulate that the blog world will continue to mature much along the lines that the world of journalistic publishing has matured.
(My assumptions and intuitive leaps have seemed to convince me that I understand the evolution of the media world. Feel free to point out flaws in my oh-so-brief history of the wire service. But here's how I take it...)
The world of reporting began with individual journalists writing and publishing papers about news and happenings. Soon, they discovered that they could join forces and consolidate all of their articles into one publication, streamlining production, alleviating some artistic pressure, and increasing distribution. Then, some of these publications discovered that other publications were often calling on them for stories. So often, in fact, that they started a "wire service" that published the stories for syndication in other publications. Soon, these wire services stopped supporting their printed publication and became a pure wire service, attracting more and more journalists to write for them, and continuing to increase their syndication by supporting innumerable publications through their efforts. Today, most newspapers you read on a daily basis are largely the results of wire service and syndication efforts.
Right or wrong, I have to assume that it happened something like that. If you don't like my take on it, read the history of the Associated Press, specifically the beginnings. Or simply write some libelous insults in the comments. Either way.
But enough with the history lesson, back to my take on the future. Ooooooh, the future. Ooooh. (Sorry, that was for effect. I can't really write a dramatic pause, and in my vast library of MIDIs, nothing seemed quite right. Work with me, won't you?)
So in the previous piece, I had theorized that the Bloglines and Rojos and Plucks of the world might be best equipped to become the wire services of the future. They would become the entities that aggregated content and supplied syndicated content via RSS feeds to which organizations could subscribe to build out there publications. They had the access to all of the RSS feeds and the bulk of the content. That's what I thought, way back in March 2005. But, as always, times change.
Now, I'm thinking that the feed reading organizations might be just as overwhelmed with information as everyone else. Too overwhelmed, that is, to begin organizing and categorizing the content to make it into a service worth selling. They only folks poised to manage that feat, in bulk, would be Google. And maybe that's where they're going with the Google Reader? Or maybe that smart bunch over at FeedBurner could handle it? Who knows? I'm just throwing this stuff out there.
Okay, so now we have self-doubt in my own prognostication and doubt in the abilities of others to deal with the massive glut of RSS information out there. What finally caused the scale to tip?
The growing popularity of blogger networks.
I had originally focused on Weblogs Inc. (recently acquired by AOL), Gawker, and even ORBlogs, a collective of bloggers throughout the state of Oregon. They were good examples. Seemingly unique in their construct. And I wasn't sure exactly what would become of them. Were they just the next MiningCo/About?
But these days, there are more and more springing up, every minute. More, I must admit, than at which I can shake a proverbial stick. Or a real stick for that matter. Which reminds me, I should get out there and start raking those leaves. I bet there are a bunch of sticks out there too...
I'm sorry. Where was I? Oh yes.
Now, there seems to be a new blogger network every time you tune into to your favorite feed reader. There's 9rules, Seth Godin's Squidoo, Jeremy Wright's b5, and the Web 2.0 Workgroup to name a few. The list keeps growing and diverging everyday. They're rapidly coagulating around specfic topics of interest or sites that hold a certain journalistic aplomb or display artistic merit or simply publish on a consistent basis. Sometimes, they're just grouping to be, well, part of the group.
And these are the places where this might happen. This may be where the idea of the wire service can take root. Where the "subscription for syndication" could work. These blogger networks have focus. They have journalists churning out content in a format that is easily syndicated. And they have management that could help the authors realize the power of their collective think. So, when I originally categorized these entities as "publications" like magazines, newspapers, and things of that ilk, I think I may have been a bit off. Now I'm shifting.
I think these blogger networks may very well become the wire services of tomorrow. The AP, UPI, Reuters. The new generation of those entities could be within our midst, either as the individual organizations or as a collective power that may topple the old guard.
What an interesting time.
What do you think? Do you think I'm off my Nostradamanian rocker? Or do my Quatrains, as they were, hold some water? It would be nice to hear from you. I realize you're busy with all the work and the friends, but it wouldn't hurt to drop me a line every once in a while, would it? I made cookies. I thought about sending you some. But only if you're willing to comment.
Technorati tags: RSS, syndication, blogs, blognetworks, squidoo, 9rules, weblogsinc, gawker, b5, orblogs, AP, UPI, Reuters, associatedpress, wire, wireservice
Blog networks are news wires in waiting
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