Sources as competitors

There's no doubt in my mind that the greatest challenge traditional publishers face from blogging is that news sources can now be news competitors -- producing compelling content at little cost.
And it seems that most every day I find someone else who has found his voice ... and found a way to bypass the traditional press.
Take a look at this site, written by an employee at Birds Eye, about the pea harvest.
Or take a look at this blog about the beer industry from Miller Brewing.
I've written about this phenomenon before in posts such as this. And it was a year ago this month that I predicted a "surge in B2B news produced by B2B news sources."
And that has turned out to be one of the most accurate predictions I've ever made.

Yet many of the B2B journalists and publishers I run into seem unconcerned. They believe that something -- tradition, brand name, familiarity -- makes them a more trusted source of information than any non-media company can be.
That's a mistake.
In a world where anyone can be a publisher, it's time to rethink our mission, our role and our business plans.

For more on this subject, check out what my friend Chuck has to say about the Miller Brewing blog.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters,  conversational media, business media, entrepreneurial journalism,  standalone journalism