The Economics of Online Publishing

Recently, the internet has undergone a major revolution via web 2.0, which basically describes the industry of online social communities, online publishing (or citizen journalism), decentralized distribution of content via podcast and vodcast and even the evolution of how information gets disseminated through various aggregators. How can we create more value with online publishing specifically, blogging and news? Our guest contributor, InSpir3d, owner of a famous Singaporean news aggregator blog, will indulge us with the economics of online publishing and how we can move forward with our own web portals.

Contributed by InSpir3d

A.Blogging

Fragmented Industry

The blogging landscape is highly fragmented. The exceptionally low barriers to entry allow many individual bloggers to set up their own websites and start publishing straight away – this acts as a major deterrant against ‘industry domination’ or ‘monopolisation of talent’ that may be attempted by any individual website.

Furthermore, the multitude of topics that is available for blogging makes it extremely difficult for any individual blogger or group of bloggers to be all things to all people. Instead, individual bloggers are given the opportunity to specialise in what they know best for their own tailored audience.

Blogging Strategy

With this in mind, the best thing bloggers can do is to try to specialise in specific topics and create their own niche. They have to differentiate themselves from others and have a unique blogging proposition (UBP). Those who are able to do so create a unique brand and following of readers who are able to tell the difference between a certain blog and other different blogs.

Successful blogs differentiate by

• tone of writing
• specialising in topic
• specialising in writing for a particular audience
• having a unique way of differentiating their content from other blogs

Strategic Traps

Trying to dominate the blogging landscape is a sure recipe for failure. This is because the underlying structure of a fragmented industry makes seeking dominance futile, unless the structure can be fundamentally changed. The low (virtually non-existent) barriers to entry into blogging make this an unlikely proposition. Trying to be all things to all people maximises the vulnerability of a website to the competitive forces of other bloggers who are able to specialise and focus and produce content in specific niches, much better than a website which tries to dominate, can.

Hence, blogs or other websites which try to create a ‘one-stop shop’ or to be all things to all people are almost doomed for disaster. For example, websites which try to be centres for opinion and commentary fight steep uphill battles against the fragmented nature of online publishing and will struggle unless they change strategies to address the fragmented nature of online publishing.

B. News Operations