Om Malik, senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine has announced that he is leaving the magazine to work full time on his blog, Gigaom.com. Om explained in a blog post yesterday. This move is another example of the disruption mainstream media has to deal with in today’s environment. Launching a new ‘title’ is easier now than ever so why would respected journalists and contributors, like Om, not consider going alone and going online? It is easy to ‘micro publish’ your content online and let the punters aggregate using any of the many tools available. Om’s move says something about how far blogging has come. It also cuts out the middleman and connects writer with reader in a way not achievable nor really used by newspaper and magazine publishers.
I remember a lunch with two newspaper executives last year when they said the “blogging fad†would die because “people want to read what they can trustâ€. Content is what people trust. Newspapers and magazines are part of a richer and more accessible mix of access points to content.
I’d like to see some Australian writers/journalists make this move and set their content free.