Nick Denton, who runs the Gawker network of blogs, sounds rather negative about the impact of blogs in a recent
New York Times article. Gawker Media publishes some of the most popular blogs including
Wonkette,
Gizmodo and
Gawker.
At a time when media conferences like "Les Blogs" in Paris two weeks ago
debate the potential of the form, and when BusinessWeek declares, as it did on its May 2 cover, that "Blogs Will Change Your Business," Mr. Denton is
withering in his contempt. A blog, he says, is much better at tearing things
down -- people, careers, brands -- than it is at building them up. As for the
blog revolution, Mr. Denton put it this way: "Give me a break."
"The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals
and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe," he said.
"They want to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives
are going to be changed."
Denton also said in the
Times interview that the
iwantmedia.com interview where Gawker Media's Managing Editor Lockhart Steele said their bloggers are paid $2,500 a month was "misreported and was supposed to be off the record." The
Times said iwantmedia.com disputes this claim. Denton also told the
Times they have a couple other blogs planned and he thinks 17 might be a good number to stop at.
