We interrupt this war for a message from our sponsors
: Jason Calacanis writes to PaidContent.org on the sale of his Venture Reporter (nee Silicon Alley Reporter):
That is the big lesson I think.. blog + database + research reports = big business, blog plus nothing = a hobby.
In my mind blogs have killed the newsletter business. You can’t be just a newsletter any more because some talented and ambitious fellow who has been laid off will spend $99 to host a blog to kill his former boss. The only protection you have is to build something bigger and better then a blog. Blogs are killing the weak publishers.
This speaks only to the trade business. The consumer world is different (and tougher). But let’s remember that the data base may not come from a single blog publisher but from an aggregator…