Forbes publisher and columnist, Rich Karlgaard began a blog two months ago and comments on his experience in his latest column. He concludes that blogging can be beneficial for business but poses a danger to mainstream media.

Karlgaard feels blogs are good for business because they will force companies to be more honest with their customers as well as maintain great service. If they are lacking in these areas, the blogosphere (their consumers) will pick up on it and criticize them freely, proof of poor service found in their anecdotes, for all to read.

He says that blogs are "not overhyped" and that the blogosphere shouldn't be judged by everyday blogs because there are thousands of well-written, insightful blogs that Karlgaard notes are easy to establish and cheap.

When it comes to the mainstream media, however, Karlgaard sees a threat. Because people write about what they know on their blogs, some have turned into popular niche publications. The general news produced by mainstream media will have trouble competing on this level because most journalists are not specialists in a field.

Furthermore, popular blogs with a staff have a financial leg up on the mainstream media; "The (Wall Street Journal) need thousands of employees and tons of ink an paper to produce its product. RealClear Politics (a conservative political blog with similar views to WSJ), gets by with fewer than ten employees."

However, Karlgaard didn't mention if bloggers could challenge the journalism of mainstream media. Although RealClear Politics may be successful, the majority of its "content" is links to newspaper articles around the US accompanied occasionally by a staff editorial. In this respect, it is doubtful that bloggers will ever be able to fill the societal role that newspapers and other mainstream media play.

Source: Forbes