Fisher Communications blogger party signals a changing landscape


Joel Connelly's column today is yet another iteration of the point we've been hearing for years, each time louder than the last -- bloggers matter. They matter a lot. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/326273_joel03.html

Enough, even, for a major media company to throw them a party.

Yesterday Fisher Communications, which owns KOMO-TV, hosted a meetup of more than 100 local bloggers at the Fisher Plaza near the Space Needle, complete with red and white wine, mushrooms topped with a colorful assortment of yummy yet unrecognizable things and a chance to take a picture at the KOMO news anchor desk.

Would a company that owns 19 TV stations and eight radio stations in the Pacific Northwest splurge on bloggers just to be nice? Techie blogger Chris Pirillo, in his Evite invitation to the bloggers, wrote that "there's no agenda for the station other than helping facilitate this meet-up."

But those who had heard about Fisher Communciations' recent acquisition of Dallas-based Pegasus News thought different.


More than 100 bloggers mingled at Fisher Plaza Thursday night for a party hosted by KOMO-TV.
Started in 2006, Pegasus specializes in personalized, hyperlocal news -- a niche first explored by the Internet and now coveted by the mainstream media.

The company announced the acquisition in July. According to the release, the move is part of the company's effort to develop "new online-only content for its key local markets."

Seattle is one of them. And if anyone owns hyperlocal, personalized news, it's Seattle's bloggers.

So were the writers from Capitol Hill Seattle, Metroblogging Seattle, the Big Blog and possibly even Exit 133 in Tacoma being wined and dined by future competition?

Most likely. And you know what? I'm all for it. If there were ever a clearer sign that mainstream media are getting a wake-up call from the blogging craft, this is it. And this is good. Amateur bloggers are being made part of the conversation, and I don't see their influence diminishing. Not soon, anyway.

The Big Blog
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/119384.asp