blogger interrupted

After thinking about yesterday’s whining from big box bloggers about NOT GETTIN PAID by interest groups seeking to get out their message, I’ve realized that I’ve been blogging about this for a long time – it’s payola.  Pure and simple.  Admitted in black and white.

The brashness of the whining actually took me by surprise, particularly given how vehement the payola denials have been since I started blogging.  Just read these quotes with a thick Italian accent – you’ll hear the blackmail immediately.  Aravosis.

They clearly recognize the blogs as a powerhouse that can help the party and help the progressive movement – otherwise they wouldn’t ask for our help. But they don’t think enough of us to actually support our work, and help us survive and prosper.

Perhaps it’s time they stopped getting the milk for free. Because this cow has had about enough.

Jane Hamsher.

“They come to us, expecting us to give them free publicity, and we do, but it’s not a two way street,” Jane Hamsher, the founder of FiredogLake, said in an interview. “They won’t do anything in return. They’re not advertising with us. They’re not offering fellowships. They’re not doing anything to help financially, and people are growing increasingly resentful.”

And the blackmail works.

Americans United for Change, the big liberal group that  came under fire from liberal bloggers in our story today for not advertising on the blogs, is now saying they will make the blogs part of their ad strategy. 

The problem with blackmail as a business model is that it only works with a few target buyers, it won’t work long term, it only gets a few pennies out of the target relative to the money it requires to run a business, and it ties the blogger to a relationship that both ruins their credibility on said issue, and makes them dependent on a meager funding relationship with a fleeting organization that may or may not have the money to pay.  Not to mention that you become known as nothing but a blog thug.  

Ben Smith notes the following.

But it’s also a reminder of the fact that independent bloggers don’t have the luxury of an ad sales department that keeps writers at places like The New York Times and POLITICO blissfully insulated from the wishes and agendas of advertisers.

Because while I’m all for bloggers on both sides getting paid, the unspoken flipside of the story is that the writers are intensely aware of who is and isn’t buying ads.

A lot of these bloggers like to compare themselves to the right wing noise machine, and how well funded they are.  Well, guess who buys Fox News’ ads – not interest groups in any large measure.  Consumer businesses – car companies, wireless providers, i.e. – PEOPLE WITH MONEY LONG TERM.  How can a business model that relies on blackmailing like-minded political actors compete with selling your audience to a business that needs eyeballs to sell to?

This way lies oblivion, my friends.