Pajamas Media: Trouble in the blogosphere
When old media's reality catches up with new media
Print journalism is cracking up, said Ross Douthat in The Atlantic, but we’re clearly a long way from finding “anything capable of replacing it.” Pajamas Media’s blogger ad network and Culture11—two examples of the “low-overhead, disaggregated, bloggy form of journalism” optimists hope will fill part of the void as newspapers retreat—announced their dissolution recent days. The new media model, it seems, is no more bulletproof than the old one.
There’s more to it than that, said Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend. The Pajamas Media project was an “attempt to institutionalize the wingnut blogosphere as an alternative to the perceived liberal MSM.” The American people are simply tired of that old George W. Bush conservatism, so nobody cared what these bloggers had to say.
That’s not true at all, said Allahpundit in Hot Air, a member of the Pajamas Media network. This system “kept a lot of right bloggers going during the election” by giving them a little ad money, but now circumstances have changed as the company pulls back to focus on PajamasTV. “Business is business.” But some of us—Hot Air included—have enough of an audience to do fine on our own.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Duchess of Gloucester: the hard-working royal you've never heard of
Under The Radar Outer royal 'never expected' to do duties but has stepped up to the plate
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Are 'judge shopping' rules a blow to Republicans?
Today's Big Question How the abortion pill case got to the Supreme Court
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Climate change is driving Indian women to choose sterilization
under the radar Faced with losing their jobs, they are making a life-altering decision
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published