River City Gazette: "We've Got Trouble With a Capital B!"

A recent joke about the bloggers blogging about blogging left me laughing in agreement; still, I feel compelled to say something about the blogging thing. The blogosphere is all abuzz regarding a recent Forbes attack on bloggers. As the case goes with bloggers, so it goes with mainstream media: consider the source.

The publishing industry is becoming progressively more electronic. What if everyone had a printing press? With blogging and the Net, more than ever, not only is it looking like everyone does indeed have a printing press, but also a printing press capable of producing millions of copies nearly for free. Due to the nature of electronic media, the quality of an online publication is largely limited only by the boundaries of human talent; clearly legions of talented individuals are connected to the Net, and many of them are new rising stars collectively capturing the attention of millions of readers.

Undoubtedly, the publishing environment existing on the Net amounts to a more competitive playing field for publishers than ever was the case in print. It really comes as no surprise to me when old school publishers trash bloggers and point out the worst examples of blogging they can find. Oh, we've got trouble in River City. Maybe, just maybe, there are some vested interests at stake here.