I Used to Think...

I wrote about what Instapundit wrote about. Now, I'm thinking, maybe he writes what I'm writing about....

His TSC column today is essentially what I wrote yesterday.

I'm sure that the blogosphere of 2009 will be at least as different from the blogosphere of 2006 as today's is from that of 2003. But the real problem with these questions is something I've observed in numerous interviews with journalists -- the tendency to focus on the biggest, or the richest, or the most popular, as if that's the story. Sometimes it is, of course. But in today's more diverse media environment, and especially in the probably much more diverse environment of 2009, we'd be wise to pay more attention to what Chris Anderson calls the "Long Tail," the huge aggregate impact of the small-but-networked. He's got a book on the subject coming out, entitled, The Long Tail: The Radical New Shape of Culture and Commerce, but the argument is clear enough: The future won't be so much about the biggest or the richest or the most popular, but about the millions of niche-market entries prospering in their own fields.

Even if the biggest, richest, and most popular blogs are hugely successful financially -- and more importantly, even if they're not -- there will be millions of people out their generating and publishing their own content. Regardless of what happens, the vast majority will be doing it without being paid (they already are) and they'll be doing it because, as I noted last week, it's fun. Which is what should really worry the Big Media people, because it's something that doesn't change with the financial markets. From four years ago comes this advice: "Beware the people who are having fun competing with you!" Because it's hard to put them out of business, so long as it stays fun.

Here. Here.