By acquiring a majority stake in Intelliseek (which publishes BlogPulse), plugging that data into Buzzmetrics, and dubbing it Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Nielsen parent VNU effectively cornered the market on blog data.
Monopolies can be good. The NFL and Major League Baseball operate as monopolies, and deliver a consistent product for their fans. Fragmenting those markets and having numerous leagues all vying for the top professionals probably wouldn’t benefit anyone, especially the fans.
Blogs have fans, and influence. How many fans they have can be determined by assessing their traffic and how many sites link to them. Those actions indicate how authoritative a blog and blogger are perceived.
Now Nielsen Buzzmetrics has been formed after Nielsen parent VNU dropped some cash on Intelliseek. They appear poised to take the position of rainmaker for the blogosphere, as advertisers, desperate to place ads in front of their demographics as people move from TV to the Internet, want to know where to spend their ad dollars.
Scott Karp blogged that Nielsen’s self-appointment as rainmaker should be viewed not through rose-colored glasses but a critical eye instead:
It’s only when I found out that VNU had its paws on it and had branded it Nielsen that I got this ill feeling. And the ramifications for the blogosphere are (potentially) huge – as Old Media knows all too well, whoever controls the data controls the marketplace, i.e. the BIG ad dollars.
The business of media is about audience, at least as to advertising – advertisers pay to reach an audience. Thus whoever measures the audience controls everything. Nielsen has had a stranglehold on the broadcast market for decades, and I bet they’re licking their chops over the the blogosphere and New Media.
The real incentive is for New Media to hurry up and figure out these new business models and get all the big advertisers (and other big spenders) on board, before Nielsen casts its long shadow over the playground.
New Media has begun that effort, as Weblogs Inc sold to AOL for a reported $25 million; meanwhile, banners for Federated Media started popping up on sites recently, as John Battelle and company race to lock up the more popular blogs in advertising deals ahead of competitors.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
