Many Advertisers find blogging frontier is still too wild

Wall Street Journal
March 25, 2005, B1

Some Blogs are running inappropriate material which are 'too naughty' for sponsers'.

"Most blogs are written by a lone author. They are typically unedited and include spirited responses from readers who can post comments at will. some marketers fear blogs will criticize their products or ad campaigns"

Blogads.com helps advertisers finding blogs with suitable contents.

bloggers Parse Pool Reportage on Bush doings

Wall Street Journal
Mar. 10, 2005, B1
By Christopher Cooper

White House Pool reports, written by rotating members of small pool designated to watch the president at close quarters, used to be guarded and filtered by White House. Not anymore. Playful notes are leaked by reporters, circulated in the blogosphere, and picked up by political weblogs such as wankette. Republicans surely don't like it very much, and seized upon as evidnec of what they consider liberal media's bias.


"Flight and motorcade uneventful. Bush was accompanied on AF1 by his daughter Barbara, in tight jeans, and by Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove, who were not wearing tight jeans"

"[for swearing-in ceremony of Michael Chertoff] The crowd was entertained with recorded, sax-heavy soft jazz that rendered the room into something like a campaign even twith all the entergy sucked out of it"

"Our protagonist(Bush) departed the White House near unto 9:20 this morning, bound for the Capitol in a determined effort to find Gary Condit. The big news of the day was made when our protagonist spoke about education. He declared that education is 'a passion for me.' In addition to this startling revealation, he made a case for free trade and his faith-based initiative."

Blog tool writing its own story of success

Los angeles Times
March 7, 2005

by Michael Hiltzik:

The success story of Six Apart

"Movable Type was born in the high-tech bust. The Trotts spent the first two years of their working lives at Silicon Valley start-ups destined for the boneyard. After one Web design firm employing both of them went under, Mena found herself spending more time working on her own weblog, dollarshort.org.The weblog then was a format used mostly by Web designers and software engineers, who viewed it as a kind of private tech-support networking tool. As users' personalities crept into their postings, the format evolved into something indefinably broader.Frustrated by the plain-vanilla character of the earliest blogging tools, meanwhile, Mena had been submitting wish lists of features to Ben, who spent his own spare time implementing them in programming language. "I was her personal engineer." At first they viewed Movable Type as a hobby. They designed it for individual use and planned to distribute it free to friends and associates. In October 2001 they posted a public version online. Within an hour it had been downloaded 100 times."

"Ito and a consultant, Barak Berkowitz, a former executive at Apple Computer Inc., Infoseek and Walt Disney Co.'s Go Network, had concluded that the blog space was worth an investment. Movable Type looked like the best opportunity in the field.Their first lunch meeting with the young couple almost ended the venture before it began. "Ben and Mena had, on paper, everything you do not want to invest in," Berkowitz recalls. "They were inexperienced. They were married to each other. They'd been working by themselves. They had a cult-like status in a community that was very protective of the technology. They had very little motivation to do something big. Both their fathers were lawyers." The Trotts, for their part, weren't even sure they wanted to own a business. As lunch wrapped up, Berkowitz remarked that they didn't seem to have much ambition. He didn't know it at the time, but his remark got under their skin.Within a week they were back in touch. Ito's firm, Neoteny Co., put up $1.2 million as seed money. A later investment round brought in $10 million from Menlo Park-based venture firm August Capital. Berkowitz eventually moved up from a board seat to chief executive."

Sex, Lies and Spies: this isn't News?

Los Angeles Time
March 6, 2005
by John Aravosis

Why did MSM failed to pick ukp Jeff Gannon scandel before bloggers did?

"1) Trepidation about gays, sex and power. In the age of wardrobe malfunctions, news organizations are extra cautious about covering anything involving s-e-x. And a gay angle only makes things more confusing. Would you be anti-gay or pro-gay if you wrote about an allegedly homophobic journalist who happened to be gay? Answer: Allegations of prostitution aren't just about someone's private life, they're about a crime that can lead to blackmail, especially if state secrets are involved. And in any case, your readers are adults — give them the facts and let them decide for themselves.

(2) Reverse liberal guilt. Too sensitive to right-wing accusations of being liberal, traditional media have overcompensated by becoming too timid in covering certain stories. They seem loath to aggressively report on scandals involving Republican politicians, in general, and this White House in particular.

(3) Blogophobia. Liberal bloggers scare the mainstream media. Media critics fret over our supposed lack of professional credentials, even though many of us are journalists. They doubt our facts but don't independently investigate the stories."

Blogs Keep Internet Customers coming back

Wall Street Jounral
March 1, 2005, B8

Small business find blogs useful for brand recognition, connecting with buyers.

"Take online magazine and dating service nerve.com Inc., which has gone so far as to turn the blogging over to its customers. The New York Company began an uncensored reality-TV-style writing competition in May with six daters. In bustling feedback sections, nerve daters ruminate on subjects such as the imminent "death of online dating" or rendezvous arranged through competing dating sites. But tales of real joys and disasters enroute to love have boosted site traffic and helped lift revenue 50% since the blog began in May, says Chief Executive Rufus Griscom. 'Feedback without editing is equivalent of letting people graffiti all over your beautiful product,' Mr. Griscom concedes. But, he says, "we have found that whenever we give [our readers] opportunities to be funny, sincere and insightful, we are amazed by the results".

"The most popular of five blogs on yogurt maker Stoneyfield farms' web site, "The Bovine Bugle" chronicles daily life on the Howmars family farm in Franklin, Vt., one of the company's organic milk suppliers. Owner Jonathan Gates writes about breaking ice in the heifers' drinking-water tanks, cows giving birth and vaccinating calves, and posts pictures to go with his reports. "