Blogging network GigaOm will announce the acquisition of the small but excellent mobile-focused blog jkOnTheRun this evening. Founders James Kendrick and Kevin Tofel will remain in Houston and continue doing their thing.
The deal size isn’t being announced, and it’s likely small. But it shows what might be the beginning of something that I wrote about in March - the rollup of the better blogs (subjectively defined) as the space gets hyper-competitive (you gotta love zero barriers to entry).
I predict that this is just the beginning of the process that will accelerate over the next 12-18 months. Larger blogs lacking the stomach for competition will sell to large media corporations. The more competitive large blogs who want to see this thing through will start to acquire the smaller ones and group by topic areas. Whoever builds the network of the most interesting and prodigious voices will eventually “win.” Or perhaps everyone will win, but to different degrees.
I’m sticking to my argument that blogs should get cash positive and then start to acquire others - raising a slug of money just gives people an incentive to spend it, and you lose control to a group of investors who may know little or nothing about how to build a blog.
And what’s most clear in all of this is that the small, independent, passionate blogger who writes day and night about whatever it is that captures her imagination plays an important role in the ecosystem. They keep the larger blogs honest, and the best of them will grow into large properties in their own right. It’s a beautiful, nasty, hyper-competitive and chaotic world we bloggers live in, and most of the time I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Kevin is a great guy, a Natural Born Blogger. Just today he helped me decide which sidegrade to get for my EVDO modem. This is what blogging is all about, people generously sharing what they know. I don’t agree that these rollups are blogging, they’re professional journalists who use the tools that bloggers created. Big difference.
Om is not an evil dude so I expect to continue seeing good things from this blog. I wonder if the negative comments regarding this takeover are due to the fact that GigaOm is a direct competitor to TechCrunch.
I don’t think GigaOm is a direct competitor to TechCrunch although most of the times they share same news. TC is way ahead. Any comments?
TC might be way ahead in popularity. But they are definitely not as credible as gigaom. Om’s blog is definitely more credible then TC. Disclosure : I am an Indian just like Om Malik
Incredible!!!!! Congrats to JKontherun!
seriously, that blog has some of the worst grammar I have ever seen used. Haven’t they heard of proof reading, spell check, etc?
Hopefully GigaOm will clean up the look a bit, too. Talk about an ugly site.
I am gonna have to disagree with you. Michael is actually pretty good friends with Om M.
what does Michael being friends with Om have to do with the JKontherun blog being poorly designed and filled with bad grammar?
” And what’s most clear in all of this is that the small, independent, passionate blogger who writes day and night about whatever it is that captures her imagination plays an important role in the ecosystem.”
her imagination?
“…who writes day and night about whatever it is that captures her imagination …”
What were you imagining?
Why the gender bias?
it’s not gender bias… it’s called politically correct.
maybe “gender balance” would be a better term.
Oh yeah, yet another example of politics flooding non-political area…
Kevin C. Tofel is actually based in the Philadelphia, PA area, while James Kendrick is in Houston.
“I’m sticking to my argument that blogs should get cash positive and then start to acquire others - raising a slug of money just gives people an incentive to spend it, and you lose control to a group of investors who may know little or nothing about how to build a blog.”
So true and not just for blogs but for a lot of other tech / web startups.
I heard NewsCorp was buying up Tech blogs too.
TL
Stop spamming. You are cerianly not better than TC. You suck
Huh… I work in mobile content and haven’t heard of this blog. Am I just out of the loop, or are they really that small?
You’re just out of the loop. It’s a great blog and has been around for a while.
+1 to everything you said, Mike
GigaOm can’t hold a candle to TC. Watching Om brag about hanging around with Scoble at Half Moon bay was sickening. Om needs a better team of writers. Om is good but is slow with news and late on analysis and Liz Ganes is so junior and a poor reporter. If anything Venturebeat is nipping at TC heels.
Whatever anyone says - J. Mike Arrington is indeed a great and selfless person (and I kid you not here and there is no tongue in my cheek), JK on the Run recently (22nd July) commented about TC’s new plans to spec a thin tablet reader “Of all the cockamamie ideas I’ve ever heard, this one takes the cake.” (http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/07/a-web-tablet-th.html) For Mike to cover this news on TC and drive traffic to that site shows either saintliness and the ability to take criticism or I am missing something here!
spdhar - Kevin’s post on JkOnTheRun was facetious. If you finish reading the entire article, you’ll see that Kevin has actually been doing a 40+ day cloud computing challenge and totally sees and understands where Mike is coming from.
Thank you and I stand corrected and yes I never came to end of the post there…. eeeps! I was missing something there!!
Please stop naming GigaOM, or TechCrunch “blogging networks”; They are now media groups, like ZDNet, Cnet and others tech information specialists.
Hey, check out our blog please. Perhaps you also want to buy us.
http://3gweek.net
My fiend Qualis Patel told me that Kevin don’t live in Houston. He live in Philadephia
Gigaom is trying to survive somehow, but will that work?
Did you people notice that they don’t display the number of rss subscribers the way TC does? That to me means just one thing: their numbers are waaaay below the 900k or so subscriptions that TC has.
I guess they will not grow very much the Gigaom readers base by posting news written in dry, MSM, language that lack some personality (hey, even rants are interesting on TC). Thus, acquiring smaller blogs that got a more human touch with the readers.
dry language, huh? you like salivating TC-style, huh?
Jealous much?
“I’m sticking to my argument that blogs should get cash positive and then start to acquire others - raising a slug of money just gives people an incentive to spend it, and you lose control to a group of investors who may know little or nothing about how to build a blog.”
But doesn’t this apply to most startup companies out there? By raising funding you obviously get exposure to experiences personnel, but you also do end up losing control to investors who may not know much about your technology.
What about the deal to buy TC? Is that not one less (huge) independent blog / media group?
“Larger blogs lacking the stomach for competition will sell to large media corporations.”
That’s a weak shot at a trailblazer who made it before you and had no serious competition in their space.