It was February of 2003, and I was in Sacrameto covering the California Democratic Party convention. I had credentials, and was sort of an oddity for the assembled political press corps. I got some needling until I proved that I was just as informed, if not more so, than most of the journalists assembled. But I didn't get anything approaching respect until this exchange:
A reporter asked, "So, uh, blogging ... what's your revenue stream?"
I responded, "I don't blog because I have to, I blog because I want to. It's the essence of writing -- doing it for the joy of it." Perhaps I imagined it all, but I sensed a grudging respect from them, a few nods of the head. Things are obviously different now, at least in the "revenue stream" department.
I have a soft spot for all my guest bloggers, but none softer than that for Billmon, who was my first guest blogger ever. Just deciding to hand over the reins of my labor of love a few times a week to someone else was a huge step for me, but Billmon never disappointed.
When he left to start his own blog, I secretly celebrated his growing success, the accolades he would receive, the Koufax Awards he would win. So it was with sorrow that I saw him close shop. And it's with a bit of perplexity that I took in his LA Times piece Sunday.
Even as it collectively achieves celebrity status for its anti-establishment views, blogging is already being domesticated by its success. What began as a spontaneous eruption of populist creativity is on the verge of being absorbed by the media-industrial complex it claims to despise.
In the process, a charmed circle of bloggers -- those glib enough and ideologically safe enough to fit within the conventional media punditocracy -- is gaining larger audiences and greater influence. But the passion and energy that made blogging such a potent alternative to the corporate-owned media are in danger of being lost, or driven back to the outer fringes of the Internet.
responds, as does
Chris Bowers, and
Digby. All of them make good points, as does Billmon as well.
Me, I'm perplexed because I feel nothing of what Billmon frets about. Has this site become institutionalized, or in any way different since Blogads made me self-sufficient? I don't care how generous you all are, I'd never be able to cover my nearly $6K in overhead on reader donations. And thanks to Blogads, you don't have to worry about it. (Henry Copeland of Blogads really is a hero of the blogopshere.)
In fact, Blogads have allowed me to focus on the site more than on the consulting biz me and Jerome share. In fact, we're not actively working any races this cycle, so those who worry about hidden biases can relax. And I have that freedom precisely because of the advertising.
But seriously, I'm curious as to what blogs have lost their way under the blogosphere's new commercial regime. Kevin says Atrios is less funny, and I'm too much of a fundraiser. I think he never should've killed Friday Cat Blogging. We all have our schtick, but if we evolve, so be it. Unlike politicians, we're allowed to shift gears every once in a while.
Has Steve Gilliard lost his voice? Nope. Jeralyn Merrit? Pandagon? MyDD? Nope, nope and nope. Have I? Perhaps, but I don't think so. I don't think there's a party official in DC who doesn't love what's being created here on dKos, but doesn't wish I wasn't such a loose canon. Heck, my Kos Dozen list isn't exactly a who's who of establishment candidates, even if the establishment has come around on a handful of them.
Money isn't the problem. On the other hand, I think Billmon may have something with this:
Media exposure, in turn, is intensifying an existing trend toward a "winner take all" concentration of audience share. Even before blogs hit the big time, Web stats showed the blogosphere to be a surprisingly unequal place, with a relative handful of blogs -- say, the top several hundred -- accounting for the lion's share of all page hits.
But as long as blogs remained on the commercial fringes, the playing field at least was relatively level. Audience was largely a function of reputation -- for the frequency or quality or ideological appeal of the blogger's posts. Costs were low, and few bloggers were trying to make a living at it, so money wasn't an issue. It may not have been egalitarian, but it wasn't strictly hierarchical, either.
It's certainly tough for new blogs to break through, but those that hit unserved niches will always have an advantage. When Daily Kos began, there were already plenty of "I hate Bush" blogs. I talked about elections, and then the war. The election niche was underserved (MyDD was it), and I provided particular expertise on the war. Juan Cole has just shown how someone can quickly rise through the ranks of the blogosphere by hitting a niche from a position of authority.
But sure, it's undoubtedly harder to break through the noise if you're a blogger. That's tough, especially since of the top two liberal blogs (this one and Atrios), only one really makes a habit of linking to other bloggers (hint: it's not me). So it's tough to build a big audience.
But I don't think Daily Kos represents the ideal of blogging. I think bloggers with 100 daily visitors are the essence of the blogosphere -- and those guys, collectively, reach a lot more than Daily Kos does. While 100 daily visitors may seem shrimpy, it's pretty darn impressive to build an audience that size. When I hit that milestone, I remember thinking, "Damn, I couldn't even fit that many people in my house!" Now it's seen as a sign of failure, and that's just bullshit.
I'm willing to bet that there are far more blogs getting 100 visitors a day today than there were 2 years ago when I hit that milestone. To me, that's what's important, not that some people have commercialized their blogs.
But I'm in the middle of it all, so perhaps I'm missing something. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, assuming you got through this long and tedious post.
p.s. I've noted the diaries on managing the growth of the community, and will respond to those tomorrow (or, more accurately, later Monday. I need to get to sleep).
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