May 5, 2005

Pajamas Media

The blogosphere is abuzz with talk of Roger L. Simon's new project, called Pajamas Media, which aims to be both an ad-supported blog network and a blog-powered global news service. Here's a story in the New York Sun that's chock-full of interesting details.

Excerpt:

In a dramatic sign that Web logs are going mainstream, three of the largest political blogs are banding together to form what is believed to be a first-of-its kind ad-supported network.

To broaden their appeal beyond national security issues, the three - ArmedLiberal.com, RogerLSimon.com, and LittleGreenFootballs.com - will receive editorial advice from the owner of one of the most heavily trafficked blogs, Instapundit.com's Glenn Reynolds, among others.

The venture will be called Pajamas Media, a not-so-subtle reference to the September remarks of a CNN executive, Jonathan Klein, who said a typical blogger has "no checks and balances" and is just "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

No launch date has been set.

The idea of Pajamas Media is to use an extensive network of globally affiliated blogs to provide first-person, in-depth coverage of most major news events, including both camera and video footage, Roger Simon said.

Using as an example the tsunami that swept through parts of Asia and Africa in January, Mr. Simon said bloggers managed to post hundreds of updates, first-person accounts, and video clips, often before major press organizations could deploy their staffs. With 162 affiliate blogs in dozens of different countries, according to Mr. Simon, the new venture will have the ability to get "in the middle of stories" that major news organizations can't, "because our affiliates will have a physical proximity, language, and cultural knowledge that the Associated Press man will often lack."

... "I think it is a tired cliche that because there won't be newspaper editors at PJM, that somehow the product will be diminished," Mr. Reynolds said. "We do not need four or five layers of editors to screw this up like they have at the L.A. Times. Hopefully, we'll have live feeds and middle-of-the-crowd commentary from the next Beirut demonstration."

Mr. Reynolds's mention of the Los Angeles Times was a reference to a March 29 column by that paper's press critic, David Shaw, asserting that reporting at the Times and other papers was preferable to the work of bloggers because of the multiple layers of editing that each story undergoes.

Mr. Reynolds argued that the work of the blogger-reporters of Pajamas Media would improve the quality of reporting on major events.

"Hopefully, reporters from larger organizations will use us as another resource to cite when they report on a big story," he said. "We're not a threat to their jobs, but we'll make them do their jobs better since there will be another record out there."

By the way, I have just two words for anyone who asserts that newspapers are superior to blogs because of their multiple layers of fact-checking: Jayson Blair.

The truth is, the blogosphere identifies and corrects errors in its own content - and in that of the mainstream media - faster because it has a much more intelligently organized system of fact-checking called "readers and other bloggers."

Just FYI, BillHobbs.com is one of PJM's affiliate blogs.

And, oh, by the way, Glenn Reynolds will be speaking about the relationship between blogging and journalism, on a panel discussion Friday night as part of the big BlogNashville conference.