The Rise of the Professional Blogger
The subheading of the Atlantic article states: “The blogosphere was supposed to democratize publishing and empower the little guy. Turns out, the big blogs are all run by The Man.” The article then goes on pointing out the fact that the top 50 blogs are basically publishing operations, have stayed there fixed, with very little or zero blogs reaching those slots.
Today, the romantic notion that solitary, untamed bloggers are running the Web is more fantasy than fact—nearly as apocryphal as old myths about stoic Western sheriffs killing 11 outlaws with six bullets.
I concur with this, but I don’t think “the man” beat us because he was necessarily better, but because a lot have given up on this form called blogging and have opted for quicker and simpler publishing, broadcasting, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it forms. They may have taken over the reverse chronological web publishing mode (it’s the most scientific way you can define blogging), but the web in general will always offer the little guy a chance to be heard.
[...] The Little Guy and Blogging « Tape Noise Diary tapenoisediary.com/2009/09/23/the-little-guy-and-blogging – view page – cached The subheading of the Atlantic article states: “The blogosphere was supposed to democratize publishing and empower the little guy. Turns out, the big blogs are all run by The Man.” The article then goes on pointing out the fact that the top 50 blogs are basically publishing operations, have stayed there fixed, with very little or zero blogs reaching those slots. — From the page [...]
This is a great find. I especially like some of the links that the Atlantic article linked out to, especially the post from Laura McKenna at 11D. Lots of great conversation.
Good stuff, Jay.
Thanks. I remember a post of yours about Power Laws, which explains what this article discusses. So in a sense, it really doesn’t matter if they’re run by the man or not, since attention never spreads evenly.
[...] observations about the blogosphere in 2009. Great conversation in the comments. Hat tip to Tape Noise Diary for finding this [...]