The WSJ debate between Jupitermedia’s Alan Meckler and Jason Calacanis left a bad taste in my mouth, and it’s getting worse. My own thoughts on it nearly mirrored Om Malik’s (”A cheap way to generate page views for WSJ”), but I decided this was a debate I’d watch from the sidelines, not one I’d jump into. Alan was wrong in my opinion (as well as a bit condescending), but he was entitled to his opinion.
My instincts to stay on the sidelines were probably right, because Alan Meckler has started getting personal in his responses to those who’ve criticized him: “Now I know why Om is journalist and not a businessman”, he says.
Om responds by noting that some blogs (he uses TechCrunch as an example) are starting to equal or exceed the page views of established online news sites.
I’m with Om on this one, naturally. Anyone who doesn’t see that blogs are taking page views from more traditional news sites is in denial. The trend is only getting started. And the shrillness of Alan’s personal attack on Om tells me that he knows it, too.
dude… SHHHHH!!!!!!!
Let everyone think blogs don’t work…
Sure, just like old Alan was “100-percent correct,” and chris locke 0% right about the net as Meckler wrote a couple of days ago:
http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/archives/014920.html
Go ahead and look at the “naive” (meckler’s word) proposal written by locke 12 years ago and use your blog-inspired minds (rather than meckler’s trade-magazine-stuck mind) to its consider its potential vis-a-vis where we are right. now.
The difference? alan was stuck in a tunnel view of a limited segment of his business. locke imagined what was possible on the net.
And by the way, I’m not sure, did anyone hear a fat lady sing?
Whatever one may think of Alan, the guy knows how to walk away from one thing and into the next at almost the exact right moment where the financial gain is greatest.
I’ve worked for him (twice). And I’ve cashed out twice. And although I have no clue what he’s really doing with the imaging businesses, I’d put money on the guy again.
Maybe he is wrong. Maybe the fat lady has sung. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Alan gets the last laugh anyway.
I think meckler is right. Every industry online follows the power curve, there are a very few at the top and the rest are in the long tail. It is mathematically impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to make a living writing blogs as calicanis suggests. If that were the case then there would be people making hundreds of millions a year writing blogs if we plotted this on the power distribution curve. It seems that all this web 2.0 hype is causing people to lose common sense.
IIIIIIIII-iiiiii-IIIIIIIIIIT’S
OOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-OOO
VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER
/bow
not over yet…..Alan has a rebuttal offering in terms of a question. I hope Mike responds !!
http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/archives/015512.html