editor and publisher examines the corporatization ‘ of weblogs:
“Weblogging by nature has been a solitary pursuit, and its practitioners are mostly independents. But as Gillmor and Cooper are showing us, the model can work on a corporate level — if news organizations are willing to be more free with their notion of what is acceptable content for their Web site.”
apparently, smart media companies will realize that ‘blogging’ will allow companies to more closely approximate the human voice and establish conversations with readers – if they don’t try to sterilize the effort:
Gillmor says eJournal is an experiment in what the Web experience can be. “We’re still trying to figure out what it is,” he says. “That’s part of the fun.” While the columnist is (obviously) at the center of the Weblog with what he writes, Gillmor sees it as facilitating a multi-way conversation between he and his readers, and readers and other readers.
Hosting a Weblog is a way to add a personal voice to the corporate face, says Jim Romensesko, one of the most widely recognized Webloggers.”
i’d have to agree with the the manifesto – this type of phenomenon is not going to stay contained within the news industry – soon enough, companies everywhere will be selecting poor saps from corporate communications to post up pres…er stories that evangelize the party line in an attempt to establish a conversation with the market.