Blogs Add Journalists as Newspapers Add Blogs

Posted on November 23, 2005

The New York Sun has an article that says Talking Points Memo publisher Joshua Marshall, is looking to hire a couple journalists. If blogs hire journalists and newspapers add blogs will they both become the same thing?

"I'm never going to have the resources to compete with the big papers," Mr. Marshall said. He said his new site will be able to follow long simmering stories more consistently than mainstream outlets do. "A scrappy blog can provide a different service. I think there's a market out there for that," he said.

The article also said that Marshall is looking to ramp up his advertising sales which will help him pay for the cost of hiring two journalists.

Mr. Marshall, whose site just marked its fifth anniversary, said he has spent the past six months seeking to professionalize the sale of advertising. A standard TalkingPointsMemo.com ad costs $500 a week through one ad-selling consortium, BlogAds.com. A premium ad can cost up to four times as much.

And BlogAds.com says the future looks bright for political blogs and ad sales.

"We've got a backlog of orders already for next year for the political bloggers," the owner of BlogAds.com, Henry Copeland, said. "It's just really clear these guys are moving from making good money to making great money."

The political ads should pick up again as we head into the 2006 midterm elections.