I find it fascinating that Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer, has bought a blog, PoliticsNJ, and buffed it up with new posters, including the state’s former governor and senator. And this comes on the heels of PaidContent reporting that Bravo bought TelevisionWithoutPity, which comes after TV Guide bought and relaunched Jump the Shark. And then here’s the Washington Post buying student-run ShopDC and relaunching it as DCScout a local Daily Candyish newsletter. All these web sites now have a market value. I’m not sure purchase is the only relationship big media need have with them if big media starts thinking like a member in a larger network. Still, it’s nice to see that this is a business.
I dunno, Jeff. My experience with big media trying to play the distributed media game wasn’t so good:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/mar/12/why-dont-plan-doing-business-fox-again/
I would have never called PoliticsNJ a blog. Hmm . . . It’ll probably now have to register as it is nothing more than shilling for the Democratic Party at this point.