Social media is at an exciting inflection point. Many of the traditional media outlets have lost credibility and the art of insight and reporting that insight has gone by the wayside. Individual blogs have recaptured much of that. But as these new clusters of rich talent come together, new “brands” are created and as some of these other comments indicate, the perception is of GigaOm the media property. That properties quality will replace *some* of that individualism and still be heads above many of the traditional media space. From a software vendor’s perspective, I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to meet with newspaper reporters who whip out a slobby blog in lieu of taking the time to be thoughtful.

Scaling anything is hard, but it’s the right fight to have. We’ve gone through much of the same thing as our company has grown from a tight group of interpersonal relationships to a bigger company. That said, we’re dedicated to our vision and value, as it sounds like you and Om are with what you’re building.

Keep up the great work, setting the new stage for media.

Cheers,
Sam

Where I differ is that Fred implied that there was no way of relating to the writers on the blog as real people. I think that’s his decision, not forced by the transformation from a single-person to a group blog.

“A cold business mixer with people I don’t know in a nightclub that’s unfamiliar”:

There are only a few writers on the site other than Om. So it’s more like a cocktail party where you have the chance to converse with some new people — people Om invited specifically, not just a crowd of people that heard of a hot new hangout.

Thanks for your comment.

But, take a second and look at it from another standpoint. Imagine if someone else started writing 25% of the posts here. All of the people who it took a lot of time to develop a sort of trust with you suddenly get jilted by an intruder who they don’t know at all.

They don’t know the new person.
They don’t know their viewpoints and how those unique views flavor the posts.
They don’t know their credentials.

Suddenly the personal connection becomes less personal. It’s not to say that the new writers are bad. They may be good, but that’s not the point. They just don’t know them and it’s going to take time to develop a certain trust.

The point is that we, the reader, don’t have the personal connection and trust with the new blogger that took time to develop with the original blogger. That’s a problem.

Blogs are not magazines. They are almost like one on one conversations with the author. If you want to run a blog with a newsroom feel to sell the most ads you might as well run a portal instead. Do it NYTimes.com style or something.

That is what happened to Giga-Om IMHO. What was a conversation in my living room with Om, a guy “I know” from years of reading and great conversations, turned into a cold business mixer with people I don’t know in a nightclub that’s unfamiliar.

But you’re probably in a tougher position - being a reporter, who’s a blogger, who’s trying to find the balance of “news” and “opinion”, right?

Tor me, the exciting part about this blogging thing is the experimentation to find my voice. And through that process, my readers get to see me grow, and in way, become more vested in me as a person.

In the end, THAT makes social media about real people.