gatewatching

Another quickie, related to a couple of recent post from me about the monetisation of blogging, and “tipping points” which might mean more people making a living from their political commentary. I spied a couple of pieces today suggesting that Australia’s online ad market - though it’s slowed lately - is projected to grow substantially over the next little while.

It’s pretty boring when bloggers boast and obsess about their traffic, but for those who wish to monetise their work, it might be worth having a chat to the ad agencies who can connect bloggers with this spend. Again, it’s an indication that we’re getting closer to the point where independent “content-makers” may be able to viably make at least part of their living from ad revenue.

If, as its suggested in those pieces, the increasing spend online is coming at the expense of traditional advertising outlets, it may be more bad news for newspaper journalism. Talking about changing shares of a finite advertising spend is maybe the only context where the dumb “bloggers versus journalists” framing of “future of journalism” debates has any application. Even so, while some bloggers may be claiming a small proportion of the advertising spend that used to go to more traditional outlets, but newspapers’ problems are much more extensive than this.

UPDATE: The Oz has picked up on this story, too.