Categories: OLD Media Moves

How blogs have changed tech coverage

Steve Baker and Heather Green of BusinessWeek, in this week’s cover story about blogs, discuss how technology coverage has evolved as a result of the new communication tool.

Baker and Green write, “What changed? Two big things, he says: technology and media. In 2005, a smart and hyperactive PR guy with a blog could actually be a leader in tech coverage. Rubel came up with scoops. Since then, megablogs with paid staffs, such as Michael Arrington‘s TechCrunch and Om Malik‘s GigaOm, have become titans. And sites like Techmeme and Digg aggregate the hottest newsâ€”much of it from the megablogs. These are New Media champions, and they come from outside Old Media ranks. Some of them, it could be argued, wield more power than large metro dailies, or even magazines. Go to the Technorati search engine and see how many blogs link to TechCrunch, the leading source for dealmaking in Silicon Valley. Links are only one measure of influence, but a vital one in the blogosphere. The number is 170,908. That’s more than (gulp) BusinessWeek.com.

“Fine. TechCrunch and the others get plenty of attention. But what’s it worth? Valuation is a hot question in social media. Andrew Baron, the co-founder of Rocketboom, an early video blog, had some fun with it. A few weeks ago, he announced that he was auctioning his Twitter account, which had some 1,300 followers, on eBay (EBAY). Anyone who wanted an instant crowd with some influential followers could bid. (Of course, these followers might not stick around under a new regime. That was part of the risk calculation.) The bidding quickly rose above $500. As the auctioning continued, more people (including us) signed up to follow Baron’s account so they could witness this drama in action. That increase in his crowd theoretically raised the value of his Twitter property. In the end, he called it off. As we write, his following has climbed to 2,309.”

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Nan Connolly says:
May 24, 2008 at 9:05 pm
The relentless pursuit of "content" for blogs, twits, newspapers, etc. is a powerful testament to the basic value of every single journalist, cub to vet. The swollen digital stream of stories, columns, blogs, microblogs and more stands in stark contrast to old-school newspaper lore that people were becoming "too busy" to read news, views and brights. I remain baffled as to how these new media will generate enough revenue to pay for a sophisticated newsgathering operation whose output warrants all these clicks and eyeballs. I'm baffled, but intrigued.