InformationWeek reports that traditional publishers are hurting in the face of the ascension of content from blogs and other sources.
While the segment should continue to expand, Outsell’s Market View report finds that individual user spending on B-to-B content between 2001 and 2005 fell 15%. "Users are finding alternatives to paid N&T [news and trade] sources: mostly ad-supported content and user-created content from blogs."
The Alternate Content Movement is on us… I don’t like the characterization that blog content is popular just cause it is free. InfoWeek, eWeek, C/Net, Computerworld… they are all free to me as well. This is about something very different.
The Alternate Content Movement has very different characteristics – implied (but not necessarily real) transparency, authenticity, brevity, timeliness… plus much more…
So, traditional publishers get caught in a pincer as their high cost models come under pressure from the declining an highly competitive world of online advertising. The winners look like C/Net and The Register – organizations that can blend e-economics, quality reporting, and Participatory Communications…
I agree that blogs are not popular just because they are free – but I think the point they are making is that many of those pay-$10-for-this-white-paper-and-you-will-know-all-you-need-to-know publications are on their way out. If you know how to search, you can find most information free somewhere on the Internet – and not just from blogs.