The trees fight back
“Should old media embrace blogging?BACK in the mists of early Internet history, online publishing was going to wrest power from the inky fingers of old media groups and put it in the hands of ordinary people. Well, it never happened. Yet just when old media began to feel smug again about its old-fashioned paper-based products, weblogging (known as blogging) happened. The question for the big media world is whether to embrace the phenomenon that, in part, claims to undermine it.”
Wow, blogging being covered in “The Economist”, it must be mainstream now. Technorati says they've passed the 3 million mark. Who knows what the numbers are, but blogging is gathering steam, for sure. The old dreams of “update your website throw a browser interface” are finally really feasible.
So should the media embrace blogging? Of course! Think about a traditional publisher. They print a magazine or newspaper and the “news” is sometimes not new by the time readers get is (especially for magazines). But think of linking the two, so you can read updates on a story online. Journalists could update a story or even give it more depth online. I don't see much of a drawback. Publishers will find ways to make money out of it, and we can get more information than we can handle.