Media working with blogosphere
The Wall Street Journal Online is promoting one story per day outside its subscription wall to bloggers. NYTimes.com is boosting the number of RSS feeds it offers. Media companies are starting to work with — instead of against — the blogosphere.
Could we be entering a belated Age of Enlightenment when it comes to the way media companies treat independent bloggers? After years of deep-linking legal debates and arguments about whether bloggers are journalists, some mainstream media outlets are starting to realize a link from a prominent blogger can bring traffic and buzz.
Take the example of the Wall Street Journal Online. Just a few years ago, Patrick Phillips, who runs the IWantMedia Web site, got in trouble with the Journal’s legal department for linking to stories behind the subscription wall by using the site’s “Email This” function. Now, WSJ.com night editor David Patton sends out an e-mail each evening especially to bloggers to let them know about the site’s “free feature,” an article that is available for free. (And yes, these e-mails start with “Dear Bloggers” and end with a courteous “Thank you.”)
Most excellent.
