Have Blogs Peaked?

I'd actually say that this article in the Chicago Tribune and the debate referenced in the article
misses the point - at least as it pertains to media companies.  The article states:

A new report from Gallup pollsters, "Blog Readership Bogged Down," cautions that "the growth in the number of U.S. blog readers was somewhere between nil and negative in the past year."

But, the question is not, "Is Blogging software a new medium / going to revolutionize media?".  Instead, it is: "how will the increased ease of self-publishing affect our world?". 

 

In other words, how are companies smartly:

• Aggregating this content
• Interpreting this content
• Evaluating this content
• Delivering the best / most relevant of this content
• Monetizing this content

Blogging = Self Publishing

Blogging software is merely self-publishing / content management software - so, an easier, more dumbed and at the same time feature rich version of FrontPage for a specific purpose.  We've seen similar things on the "store launcher" side, with eBay's ProStores, Yahoo! Stores, etc. all coming to market, and shopping carts like OS Commerce coming online. 

It's pretty clear that if you lower the barrier to participating in a  certain activity, the number of participants will rise.  So, more people are publishing content (whether their own store or their own editorial or other) today than in the past.  Once you've got more content / more choices, though,
the key question becomes how to find the right / most valuable content.

 

Self Publishing Example

eBay to eBay ProStores is an interesting example of the phenomenon of self publishing.  With eBay, it's easy to sell an item - you don't need a store,  don't need to accept credit cards...pretty much the only thing you need to do is have something to sell.  Apparently, as the growth of eBay somewhat demonstrates, there are a lot of people with something to sell.  Now, for people
who have been selling many items and who are looking to put up a storefront which they can market through many channels, not just eBay, eBay introduced ProStores.  To me, this is similar to going from commenting in a messageboard to publishing your thoughts in your own blog -
not everyone will make this leap, but some will. 

Who makes money from ProStores?  Well, obviously the merchant has a chance to make money from it's goods, and eBay makes money because the merchants pay a subscription / management fee.  But also Google, Shopzilla and any other site that helps consumers find these new merchants, and then AOL or other sites that distribute Google and Shopzilla's listings to an already aggregated audience.

Conclusion for Media Companies

In looking at ProStores, the value that is generated by each player in the equation is in the following
order

• Google
• Shopzilla
• AOL / eBay (unclear which margins are better here)
• Merchant (highest risk here) 
  

So, the questions asked at the beginning really just equate to this: how do media companies move away from being near the bottom in value generated towards being at the top?  This question is relevant for reviews, ratings, recommendations, listings, etc - any of the stuff that people may
publish online using these new tools.