Old vs New Media

The Economist had a good survey on New Media. It quotes a media consultant as advising newspapers & magazines to make their content linkable rather than wall it off. I'd like ot link to that quote but The Economist has... walled it off. That aside, it's actually pretty good stuff.

And it relates directly to a recent post by Ross. There are two criticisms of the new media environment most frequently made by Trad Media pros:
1. No one reads blogs.
2. It's all nicked from mainstream media anyway.

Both of these are valid but miss the point.
1. Most blogs have a small number of readers - but that's OK. Most of the conversations I have are with small numbers of people rather than huge auditoriums. And a pub/cafe debate is a better metaphor than a news article for a blog.
2. Most bloggers will utilise whatever news sources they have. And those often happen to be from trad media. But most bloggers I know do not want to replace the BBC or the Wall Street Journal. The point for the blogger is what they add to the story. It's what you do with it that counts.