Can Bloggers Compete with Established News Sources?
Jan 29th, 2007 by Dan Blank
Robert Scoble started off a bit of a debate online when he lashed out at some prominent blogs for not linking to his content, and to other bloggers on the web.
“It’s interesting how everyone links to the New York Times, who of course doesn’t link to blogs, but very few bloggers will link to another blogger who got access to something they didn’t.”
Many issues came up in the debate, but it centered on how sites like Engadget would link to established media, but not to Scoble, who had an exclusive video regarding breaking news. The debate kept going on Scoble’s blog, and all over the web.
As more content, and more content creators come online, growing pains such as this will be felt. Robert is very well known, and while his original issue was a bit self-serving, he makes a good point. How will the best and most relevant sources for information be found and linked to online. Is this the goal? Where do social politics come into play? And as one commenter on Robert’s blog notes, what about the untold number of bloggers who write and have no one read them?
How was it exclusive or breaking? It was well established that Scoble’s video was released at the same time as everything else, he did not break the news as he was under the same embargo as the NYT. The NYT was where we found the news — if he’d have tipped us when the embargo broke, we’d have probably seen it through his venue first.
Ryan, I agree with all of your points. In reference to Robert’s video, his video was exclusive (only he had it), and the news was just announced, and there was some buzz around it - hence ‘breaking.’ I did not imply that he broke the news, simply that his video may have added unique value to a news story.
In terms of where people link - your point - and that of the larger conversation is how quickly new sources swarm on these topics. Robert was somewhat upset at first that his video was not featured more prominently. But your point is spot-on. With all of the news sources, all of the stories, and only 24 hours in a day - we don’t always get the most relevant links - we get the most convenient.
Thanks!