The Reach - Podcasting and other Portable Media Strategies

Greg Sterling discusses the new Pew Research report regarding the segregation of internet users.  Greg’s headline is more grabbing than the stats, as it appears that what could be defined as the “Web 2.0″ crowd is 23%, which is more than I would have guessed at this point.  Pew’s own report says about 31% - but their definitions seem to conflict, so I’ll stick with the 23% number.

The greater issue, which comes up from time to time is whether there is an echo chamber that is Web 2.0 and will that continue our break out to widespread adoption and purpose?  No answers hear today, but a word of caution to consider if Web 2.0 is something you alone embrace, or your entire family, including near retirement “Boomers”…..

At 6:55P, CST today, 9 out of 17 headlines on TechMeme are not traditional bloggers, but instead are newspaper reporters - mostly for the New York Times.  This has been a trend over recent weeks to the point that I now believe more firmly what I’ve said many times before - if traditional media begins to “get” new media, then there won’t be new media anymore - it will just be media and those thinking they had old media cornered and dead will find they have cornered a rabid dog…..

Yesterday, Steve Rubel articulated the issues around RSS and large, profitable web properties - specifically Yahoo!.  He updates today with a broader discussion of this issue here. I’ve been discussing this in presentations for the past year that RSS, while a phenomenal “new” service that web users can benefit from, requires a web property focused on pageviews to rethink their advertising strategy.

Namely, should a frequent reader only subscribe to your feeds, there is NO reason for them to come back to your website.  That is, unless you are primarily an e-commerce website.  So, can you monetize your RSS feeds significantly enough to replace the the money you’ll see disappear from your CPM reduction?  So far, advertising in RSS feeds is still nascient, so I’m thinking that you won’t be able to.  Thus, those web properties focused on ad sales to survive have to reconsider how quickly they adopt an RSS strategy. 

The big surprise for me is that Yahoo! appears to not have considered this when they started or at least when they saw RSS taking off.  Poor strategic planning, guys.

What do you think CNN, WSJ, and Time should/will do in light of this discussion?  AOL already has enough revenue problems and now, they have a new leader (Randy Falco) who doesn’t appear to appreciate email - is that a sign that he’ll adopt RSS or that he doesn’t yet know what it stands for….?

To a certain degree, one must have a fairly sizable ego to blog.  Hence, when that ego is not assuaged by something symbolizing readership, it can be discouraging.

Nick Carr writes a thoughtful blog entry wondering if anyone will ever read - or comment - or enter into a dialogue.  Great question - well written. Essentially discusses A-list bloggers being a self-perpetuating dynasty until they quit or die.

He promptly gets humliated by A-list bloggers here, here, here and the subsequent discussion certainly is numero uno on TechMeme.

While I’ve never entered this debate before, I find that I have something to say about it.  Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” comes to mind.  Starting to blog is a lonely place.  Most of the A-listers were probably there at one point and now are not sure how they “got lucky”.  They’ve just forgotten how lonely it was at one point and now may think they have all the blogging answers. 

I think whatever readership and “fame” is generated to a person via blogging is somewhat short-lived.  To think otherwise is to believe that every startup from Silicon Valley will succeed because of its location.  History would prove otherwise and will do so again.

As Dennis Miller used to say after his rants - “But that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong.”