• online advertising

    The death of conversational marketing

    An unproar in the world of tech blogs is uncovering a broader fault line between writers and advertisers. Om Malik's GigaOm and his other blogs have dropped their outside ad-sales firm, Federated Media, a startup run by John Battelle. Federated isn't just another ad network, nor is Battelle just another entrepreneur; he helped start Wired and The Industry Standard and an author of a book about Google, thinks that the future of marketing is conversations. And he launched Federated around that notion. Rather than shouting at readers with ads, marketers will use blogs to engage with their readers — and pay handsomely for the privilege. That's his theory, at any rate, which he is expounding in a forthcoming book. More »

    3:00 PM on Fri Nov 21 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    4,928 views, 9 comments

    Most discussed DesireeKollina: Owen - It's astonishing how many things you can get wrong in a single post. Rather than list each and more »

  • new york, minute

    New York blogger worries himself sick over conflicts of interest

    "If we want NYC to kick ass in the world's tech community, we have to stop favoring a few 'friends' and let everyone get time on stage." CenterNetworks founder/writer/editor Allen Stern doesn't just complain about inbreeding in New York's Web 2.0 scene, he documents it by listing the companies that presented at last night's NY Tech Meetup, and speculating on their potential conflicts of interest. Jeez, Allen, wait'll you find out I used to be on the secret MacArthur committee. Here's what we're group-thinking out here in our Valley chatroom: More »

    5:00 PM on Wed Oct 8 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,250 views, 5 comments

    Latest by Lawrence: It seems there's always conflicts of interests - stop bitching about it, and just accept it as the norm now more »

  • blogging for dollars

    Om Malik Arrington-proofs his blogs with $4.5 million funding

    The founder of the GigaOm blog network isn't one of those guys who just wants to write, write, write. Om Malik, who reported on Valley VCs for Red Herring and Forbes in the '90s, is now on his second stint as a venture capitalist. His announcement this morning of a $4.5 million round of investment led by Palo Alto-based Alloy Ventures isn't aimed at readers, but at competing blog businessmen — specifically TechCrunch owner Mike Arrington. Malik's message: Kiss your dreams of owning me goodbye. More »

    10:00 AM on Mon Oct 6 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,589 views, 5 comments

    Most discussed scoobydoo: I like Om. He is everything Arrington wants to be when he grows up. more »

  • great moments in journalism

    In today's news, I met Al Gore!

    GigaOm's Om Malik and Mashable's Pete Cashmore like to present themselves as leaders of a new kind of Web 2.0 journalism. Both turned up at Current TV's offices Friday, ostensibly to cover Current's Twitter-enhanced coverage of the first Presidential debate. Truth is, Current's publicists had called reporters to tip us off that executive chairman of the board Al Gore would be there. Gore didn't bother to use Twitter himself — he didn't even stick around for the debate. But he did take time to pose for photos. More »

    8:00 PM on Mon Sep 29 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,220 views, 3 comments

    Most discussed Nikongmer: You may have met him but how many people can say they've patted him down? Al Gore has very built more »

  • om malik

    VC reporter finally joins the team

    No one's surprised that GigaOm founder-and-whatever-else Om Malik has joined True Ventures as a partner. Or that he buried the news near the bottom of a lengthy blog post last week. Or that it took days for reporters to discover the blog post, with its classically obscure Malikian headline, "Evolving My Work Life." The New York Times felt obligated to quote a journalism ethics prof on the potential conflict of Om being both a Valley VC and a reporter on Valley VCs. But let's be honest about the Valley's take: No one cares. Like fellow reporters-turned-moneymen Michael Moritz and Stewart Alsop, Malik will finally, finally be taken seriously by the people he's been following for years. (Photo by Brian Solis)

    2:20 PM on Mon Sep 8 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    605 views, 4 comments

    Most discussed HumphreyBogus: Haven't we seen this movie before? Om's bio mentions that he had a short stint as a VC in 1999 as more »

  • quotable

    Yahoo plagued by "systematic rot" says Om Malik

    Almost every technology and business publication, including Valleywag, has been all Yahoo, all the time. Between the Microsoft merger talks, proxy board battle with Carl Icahn and employees leaving nearly every day, there's been lots of deliciously bad news to report. However, my old boss Om Malik over at GigaOm has been fairly quiet on the issue. One reason why is because a lot of his sources at the company have probably left, which is good for them but bad for a good reporter. Today, however, he weighed in with his analysis. More »

    1:40 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
    By Jackson West
    3,193 views, 10 comments

    Latest by pleinad: Don't blame it all on management. When will engineers or low-mid level admit to their share of issues? "I didn't more »

  • superficial

    GigaOm's Om Malik tries out a new look

    I can report that Om Malik, the blogfather behind GigaOm and Giga Omnimedia's stable of sites like NewTeeVee, Earth2Tech, OStatic and Web Worker Daily (which I like to call, collectively, "the Ompire") has been doing well since suffering a heart attack at the end of last year. He's also scaled back what little excess there was in his workaholic lifestyle, and while he promised he wouldn't be changing his avatar, he's done just that — getting rid of the cigar, the fedora and the argyle sweater for a warm gaze and new media-blue shirt.
    Simple food, simple clothes, a simple home and simple, clear writing. Hopefully I can stick to that plan. I have incorporated physical exercise into my daily life, given up smoking, gone almost completely vegetarian and taken to wearing jeans.
    More »

    10:00 AM on Fri Jun 20 2008
    By Jackson West
    666 views, 6 comments

    Latest by dotcomcowboy: We're about to launch an online day spa for avatars hosted at an exclusive colo facility at Interlaken offering color more »

  • online video

    NewTeeVee Station launches, tracking Web-video contagion

    The plague of viral video has an epidemiologist: NewTeeVee Station, a spinoff of GigaOm's NewTeeVee, a blog which tracks the online-video industry. "Basically, we think this online video stuff is more and more legit," NewTeeVee editor Liz Gannes IM'd me earlier today. "We are betting on that, and treating it like a real entertainment medium." Liz Shannon Miller, pictured, will edit NewTeeVee Station's reviews of popular videos. First up: YouTube sensation Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance." More importantly than just describing the videos, the site will track who made the videos, who appeared in them, who funded them, and whether they profited. (Laipply, for example, hasn't made money off YouTube, but he did get on Oprah.)

    9:00 PM on Mon Jun 9 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    406 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Rick: "Basically, we think this online video stuff is more and more legit," NewTeeVee editor Liz Gannes IM'd me earlier today. more »