USA Today and Blog Bubble

Heather, I wonder if you can see signs of a blogging bubble in the hiring market. Seems to me that much of the mainstream world is anxious to land some expertise in this area--and there's a shortage of supply (or at least branded supply). This means that people who can help them figure it out (Jeff Jarvis and Steve Rubel, to name two) are at a premium. I know nothing about their rates, but I'd bet they've climbed in the last three months at the clip of Netscape stock circa 1996. Then there was a shortage of Internet stocks; now it's blog smarts. The key question is whether the advice they're giving will pay off and fundamentally change the way corporations and media manage their information. My feeling is that even if the current strategies flop, it won't be for lack of power in the medium.

I'm having breakfast at an Austin coffeeshop before catching a plane back to NYC. Still blocked from blogging, apparently a firewall issue.

Steve, so far, according to indeed.com there has not been a slowdown in the blog hiring market.

http://tinyurl.com/7wpfy

You are right. The real challenge for people like Jeff Jarvis and I is not in launching successful blogging programs but, like you say, in demonstrating show how such efforts augment traditional media (in Jeff's case) and marketing/PR strategies (in mine)..

Why is it that virtually everything that gains some interest now automatically gets tagged as "a bubble"? I suppose it's an inevitable psychological effect of the trauma many people experienced from the bust that followed the 1998-2000 boom. Why can't we simply focus on what's really happening (where the rubber meets the road) instead of obsessing about what might happen if the sky does fall (which does happen sometimes, but not all the time)? Pre-labeling any phenomenon "a bubble" has no utility, economic or otherwise. The utility of web sites is quite clear here in 2005, even though the dot-com "bubble" was also a fact... how can it be that something good remains if a "bubble" has "burst"? Maybe bubbles aren't as bad as some people claim they are. More bubbles, please.

-- Jack Krupansky

Jack, why do we call everything a bubble? Because we always defend ourselves against the last outrage committed against us. That's why the French set up the Maginot Line. Economists well into the '50s were on the lookout for the next Great Depression. I'm sitting in an airport now and had to take off my shoes? Why? Our defenders are still thinking about that shoe-bomber, even though his clan has surely moved on to other murderous schemes. Considering the impact of the dotcom bubble, I don't see it at all surprising that we keep it in mind a mere five years later. The important question is if our obsession with that danger blinds us to others that are more likely.

here's another sketch. guess which one is mainstream media...

Scene 4

[typing sounds]

[Black Knight defeats a worthless-piece-of-crap-knight]

ARTHUR: You fight with the strength of many men, Sir knight.

[pause]

I am Arthur, King of the Britons. [pause]

I seek the finest and the bravest knights in the land to join me in my Court of Camelot. [pause]

You have proved yourself worthy; will you join me? [pause]

You make me sad. So be it. Come, Patsy.

BLACK KNIGHT: None shall pass.

ARTHUR: What?

BLACK KNIGHT: None shall pass.

ARTHUR: I have no quarrel with you, good Sir knight, but I must cross this bridge.

BLACK KNIGHT: Then you shall die.

ARTHUR: I command you as King of the Britons to stand aside!

BLACK KNIGHT: I move for no man.

ARTHUR: So be it!

[hah]

[parry thrust]

[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's left arm off]

ARTHUR: Now stand aside, worthy adversary.

BLACK KNIGHT: 'Tis but a scratch.

ARTHUR: A scratch? Your arm's off!

BLACK KNIGHT: No, it isn't.

ARTHUR: Well, what's that then?

BLACK KNIGHT: I've had worse.

ARTHUR: You liar!

BLACK KNIGHT: Come on you pansy!

[hah]

[parry thrust]

[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's right arm off]

ARTHUR: Victory is mine!

[kneeling]

We thank thee Lord, that in thy merc-

[Black Knight kicks Arthur in the head while he is praying]

BLACK KNIGHT: Come on then.

ARTHUR: What?

BLACK KNIGHT: Have at you!

ARTHUR: You are indeed brave, Sir knight, but the fight is mine.

BLACK KNIGHT: Oh, had enough, eh?

ARTHUR: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left.

BLACK KNIGHT: Yes I have.

ARTHUR: Look!

BLACK KNIGHT: Just a flesh wound.

[Headbutts Arthur in the chest]

ARTHUR: Look, stop that.

BLACK KNIGHT: Chicken! Chicken!

ARTHUR: Look, I'll have your leg. Right!

[whop]

[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's leg off]

BLACK KNIGHT: Right, I'll do you for that!

ARTHUR: You'll what?

BLACK KNIGHT: Come 'ere!

ARTHUR: What are you going to do, bleed on me?

BLACK KNIGHT: I'm invincible!

ARTHUR: You're a loony.

BLACK KNIGHT: The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on then.

[whop]

[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's other leg off]

BLACK KNIGHT: All right; we'll call it a draw.

ARTHUR: Come, Patsy.

BLACK KNIGHT: Oh, oh, I see, running away then. You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!

"What goes up, must come down; a USA Today reporter reminds the blogosphere to keep itself in check." Kevin Maney is right on the dot here, but there is no doubt that the dawn of CEO and high level blogging at the corporate level has ushered in a new generation in transparent corporate communications. (A generation that corporate communications and PR professionals will need to manage.)

Well well! I'm not going to overlooked the importance of web-blogs in enhancing business opportunties in this pace grwoing world. Not at all.

Indeed, day by day the blog hiring market is increasing.

Question.....Is the media missing another unsavory Obama Associate? Official blogger a Communist?

Who is Sam Graham-Felsen OBAMAS OFFICIAL BLOGGER ON THE OBAMA WEBSITE.
Who is Noam Chomsky? Someone Sam has great admiration for?
Why?? is this Important. Noam is...an anti-American academic!!!!

More Obama anti-american ties. Hmmmmmmmmmm Read for yourself about the anti-american people Obama associates with!! They just keep coming out of the woodwork!!

Barack Obama’s “official campaign blogger,” Sam Graham-Felsen, is a hardcore Marxist—and even leftists like this are disturbed by his presence on the campaign staff: Sam Graham-Felsen stands for what?

Here’s an article by Sam Graham-Felsen at the Harvard Crimson, expressing his admiration for anti-American academic Noam Chomsky, and advising him to tone down the extreme rhetoric in order to trick the unwashed masses into following along: Chomsky’s Choice.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/04/24/media-missing-another-unsavory-obama-associate-official-blogger-

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349802