Gonzo Versus The Grays

Mark Glaser writes in the Online Journalism Review about some of the changes in use and attitudes towards blogging from many different parts of the professional world. Especially appropriate to the recent discussion of Gonzo Media is this tidbit:

Grueskin starts with the assumption that bloggers have the privilege of linking to WSJ.com stories, whether it's to criticize or praise them. And he doesn't believe journalists must have an adversarial relationship with blogs.

"Many traditional journalists have come to see blogging as an either-or proposition -- you're either a blogger or you're a conventional reporter or columnist," Grueskin told me via e-mail. "I see blogging as a nascent phenomenon that is a threat to journalism only to editors who treat it as such. I think the key is finding ways in which we can each do what we're best at, and look for ways to cooperate. Truth is, bloggers depend a great deal on traditional media. But, I'm coming to find, we can depend on them."

If you think it's all about love and kindness, think again. Grueskin says traffic generated from blogs to the free features has been "substantial" for compelling stories. While he couldn't be specific about numbers, Grueskin said the links from blogs sometimes rivaled the traffic generated by links in Yahoo Finance.

Source: Online Journalism Review, "Dear Bloggers: Media Discover Promotional Potential of Blogosphere"

For now, the little line skirmishes are interesting, almost entertaining. In the long run, however, Big Media will be pushed over the this side and a significant re-calibration of attitudes/aptitudes will occur.

One last gripe in this little struggle - all readers of RSS are not Bloggers. Seems many have taken to forcefully attach the use of RSS to the blogosphere and it just isn't (completely) so.

via JDB