Blogs Are Dead, Long Live Blogs

Sometimes it’s fun to watch the contradictory conversations that circle between “old” or “mainstream” media and “new” media. Their positions are self-serving but instructive. 

Today’s MediaPost (registration required) features an editorial about the virtues of including blogs in market research and PR strategies. While acknowledging the potential downside of digital lynch mobs, the article makes the point that these highly engaged consumers can also serve as terrific brand advocates. The piece underscores the premise that effective “blog relations” is founded on authentic engagement with the audience, and that it’s more akin to customer service than PR. 

On the other hand, today’s editorial page of the Chicago Tribune (registration required) includes an article about the relative ineffectiveness (and irrelevancy) of the blogosphere. It cites as proof a recent Gallup  poll which said that only 9% of Internet users regularly read blogs, and that blogging was last among online activities. (Somehow they missed countless other studies on the subject, including a Pew study from early 2005 which reported that 8 million American adults created blogs; and that in 2004 blog readership jumped 58%, representing 27% of Internet users.) The Tribune article concludes that blogs have a disproportionate influence on media, but virtually no one else. 

Now we all know that research can be flogged to prove nearly any point. The interesting question is why so many old media warhorses are so threatened by the idea of consumer generated media. Heaven forbid that they’d actually have readers so interested that they start a debate. 

Of course there are flaws in today’s incarnation of blogs and consumer generated media. And yes, there are many self-referential conversations, particularly among technologists and politicians. But at 28m blogs and growing, they aren’t going away anytime soon. The self-expression Pandora has been unleashed from the box. Savvy journalists and marketers will learn how best to engage, and, even better, provide a counterpoint of reasoned thought in these conversations. 

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Blogging, Citizen Journalism, Marketing, Media, Newspapers