Blogger’s cabal
: Jonah Goldberg (as reported by Glenn Reynolds) suggests the creation of a Bloggers’ Union. (Well, first, isn’t “union” an odd word for a right-winger to use. But getting past that….)
He’s onto something but from the wrong angle.
Sometime ago, I floated the idea of a foundation to support and promote bloggers, providing individual benefits, all made possible by advertising. But I abandoned that because after I heard reaction from bloggers — enthusiastic but with no skin in the game — I realized that there was no sustaining economic engine to it. It’s about revenue, man, revenue. (Shouldn’t a right-winger get that, too?)
For this to work, I concluded, a profit-driven company needs to be created to represent weblogs to marketers: The Weblog Agency, Inc. That agency will do what Goldberg quite rightly suggests: It will perform research to show what a good audience this is (from the perspective of demographics and also of targeting). It will impose necessary standards for such things as ad serving and stats. It will promote the wonders of weblogs to the world, especially media. It will sell advertising and bring in revenue. Henry Copeland has a good start but to do all that would require further investment.
Anybody want to start it?
