As someone who closely follows the rise of the progressive netroots, having co-authored a book on the subject, this article caught my eye.Some of the leading liberal bloggers are privately furious with the major progressive groups — and in some cases, the Democratic Party committees — for failing to spend money advertising on their sites, even as these groups constantly ask the bloggers for free assistance in driving their message.Check out these quotes by big names in the national, progressive blogosphere.
Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake: "They come to us, expecting us to give them free publicity, and we do, but it’s not a two way street. 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.”
Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos: "Most want the easy way — having a big blogger promote their agenda. Then they turn around and spend $50K for a one-page ad in the New York Times or whatever."
John Aravoisis of Americablog: "The party committees really get that we can be effective as their partners and that we’re happy to help, and they take advantage of that. But even so, very little ad money comes from them. It’s more than just wanting to share in the spoils. We are small business-people who are fighting to survive economically in a really bad year."
John Amato of Crooks and Liars: "These groups actually believe that we should promote their stuff for free. Do they not understand that we need funds to sustain our viability?"
I've talked about this subject with a number of people, including my co-author Nate Wilcox, and I tend to agree with Jane, Kos, John and John. On the state level, there continues to be ZERO business model for earning a living while blogging full time. That would be perfectly fine, I suppose, except for one problem: the collapse of newspapers means that, increasingly (for better and for worse), the BLOGS are the only source for news about local and state politics. But if bloggers can't do this full time, because they need to maintain "day jobs" in order to keep food on the table and pay their rent or mortgage, how are they going to be able to - for instance - drive down to Richmond during the middle of the workweek to cover the General Assembly? And if THEY can't cover it, who will if the corporate media goes the way of the Dodo bird?
This is a serious question for the Democratic Party and for progressive interest groups of all types. Do they believe it's important to build a network of progressive, netroots activists in every state, do they take it for granted, do they not "get it," or do they "get it" but simply not give a rat's hindquarters? I'd love to hear the questions by Kos, Jane et al. addressed seriously by the top levels of the national and state Democratic parties...
