I can’t imagine how I missed Time for the last post, a story in the Financial Times last month (I read the online paper daily) – a lengthy commentary on blogs, blogging and bloggers.
It’s not the usual mainstream media blog-analysis guff. Written by Trevor Butterworth, it’s a sharp and perceptive view of past, present and possible future.
For instance:
[] blogging would have been little more than a recipe for even more internet tedium if it had not been seized upon in the US as a direct threat to the mainstream media and the conventions by which they control news. And one of the conventions that happened to work in blogging’s favour was the way the media take a new trend and describes it as a revolution.
Or:
[] We are witnessing “the dawn of a blogosphere dominant media”, announced Michael S. Malone, who has been described as “the Boswell of Silicon Valley”. “Five years from now, the blogosphere will have developed into a powerful economic engine that has all but driven newspapers into oblivion, has morphed (thanks to cell phone cameras) into a video medium that challenges television news and has created a whole new group of major media companies and media superstars. Billions of dollars will be made by those prescient enough to either get on board or invest in these companies.”
And:
[] Blogging will no doubt always have a place as an underground medium in closed societies; but for those in the west trying to blog their way into viable businesses, the economics are daunting. The inherent problem with blogging is that your brand resides in individuals. If they are fabulous writers, someone is likely to lure them away to a better salary and the opportunity for more meaningful work; if the writer tires and burns out, the brand may go down in flames with them.
Butterworth wrote a companion blog (well, a blog with only two posts) leading up to publishing his feature. That blog is now closed, but the many comments are online. You may not agree with some or many of Butterworth’s points and conclusions, but all of this is a great read.
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
