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.

Uncategorized advertising

It’s been awhile between drinks here on Gatewatching. My excuse is that I’ve moved jobs, and things have been (and remain) frantic here at GetUp! (Not sure about Axel and Barry’s excuses )Big news soon, but the job has been something of a continuation of my work on youdecide2007 and queenslanddecides, with a little bit of open australia mixed in, and some other spesh features. Watch this space.

Anyway, I’m inspired to post today by what seems to me to be indications of a definite move into a second “wave” or “phase” of Australian political blogging. A lot of bloggers seem to be moving towards group blogging, underwritten by advertising revenue - higher-traffic political bloggers are moving towards long-term, monetised and (hopefully) more sustainable models of content-making. (This is apart from those bloggers - the Bolts, Blairs and Dunlops - who are already operating successfully within MSM sites).

Read more…

Uncategorized advertising, blogosphere, business, journalism

A few bloggy responses to the first 100 days of the new government. (If there are some we’ve missed, let us know)

Guy Beres offers a summary of the MSM reaction.

Tim Dunlop reckons that the printed report is a bit rich after the pasting Labor have been giving the outgoing government over political advertising.

And Uncle Piers, well…

AFTER just 99 days of the Rudd government, Australia is in the worst political position it has endured since the crisis days of the Whitlam government 33 years ago.

Here’s hoping he’s on Insiders tomorrow, and that this is just an appetiser.

UPDATE: Yes and yes.

blogging, government, media advertising, blogging, government, media