Simple answer: niche publishing and commentary no?

Not if Michael Arrington’s dreams are to be fulfilled however. Overlooking his urge to write first without checking the details about his competitors, the Techcrunch publisher nevertheless writes an interesting rant (his description) of the state of tech blog journalism today in which he envisages a mega-tech blog dream team network that "could take CNET apart in a year, hire the best of the survivors there, and then move on to bigger prey."

Mmmm…..sounds very San Francisco 2000 to my ears. Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that journalistic blogs were being lauded as the anti-establishment, a new online alternative press that was an antidote to the complacent mainstream?

Now Arrington, head of one of the most influential tech blogs in the world, seems to want to abandon his winning position commanding the niche.

Could the fragility of the online publishing business be a driver of this urge to merge? Advertising is the first victim of a faltering economy and even online isn’t immune from those trends.

I don’t know the current health of online tech publishing (it’s been booming up until now) but a recession isn’t going to help drive a new tech empire. Maybe Arrington’s rant is less a call for world tech domination and more circle the wagons as tougher times lay ahead.

Essentially, Arrington is cautioning his competitors/compadres not to jump at small amounts of VC money when a bigger prize might be on the horizon. But surely every social media trend we’ve seen in recent years suggests that a, being big doesn’t guarantee success and b, the ability to dominate any communication sector is fleeting at best.

Getting big quick might work for blogs but then again, the bigger and more bloated they are the harder they fall.

- Matthew