Blogosphere lacks money

A summit in New York City has brought MSM and Blogosphere together. MSM and Blogosphere will try and identify ways of working together. The author of this ABC News article is also one of the participants of this summit. He says that Blogosphere lacks money and MSM is losing legitimacy at a rapid rate.

The MSM has the money and the infrastructure. Over the centuries, it has perfected the art of converting print into dollars. But the MSM is also in trouble, losing both customers and legitimacy at a shocking rate. The recent circulation scandals among the nation's leading newspapers, the Dan Rather/"60 Minutes" fiasco, and now the astonishing self-destruction of The New York Times, show just how desperate and troubled the MSM has become.

What the MSM lacks, the blogosphere has in spades: energy, momentum, and a growing audience. But what bloggers lack is money — bloggers have yet to find an efficient way to turn their hard work into revenue … and until they do, blogging will always be a lonely sidelight, vulnerable to dying with the next missed mortgage check.

Natural antagonists, the mainstream media and the blogosphere now need to find a way to work together — or both the news and publishing professions will find themselves in an even worse crisis than they are in now, and all of us will be the worse for it. That's why this summit is over-subscribed, and last minute sign-ups were still taking place even as I got on the plane yesterday.