Starting a blog with or without your company

Sometimes your boss is a knucklehead.
And perhaps that's what's going on with the editor mentioned in this post on Businessweek's blogspotting. The editor says his team wants to start a blog ... but the publisher will only back it if the blog supports itself with advertising.
Now just think about that for a second, and put yourself in that publisher's shoes.
Imagine your staff came to you and said they wanted to do more work and create a new product. Imagine they said there was no cost.
Can you imagine saying no? Can you imagine telling them to "sell" the thing first?
Look -- I run into this stuff fairly often. And it's these same publishers -- fearful of change and quick to crush an initiative -- who complain the loudest that their editorial staff isn't ambitious.
And I'm coming to believe that the best move is to just ignore such publishers.
The media word is changing. Someone is going to be left behind. And perhaps it should be your boss.
If you're an editor with a good idea and an entrepreneurial personality, then you don't need your publisher anymore. Heck -- that's the great lesson of citizen journalism. Anyone can be a publisher now. And if you have a few bucks saved, or if you're young and/or brave enough to risk the loss of stability, then you don't need anyone's approval to create a product.
Launch the product. You already have the editorial skills.
Monetize it. Here's a guide. (Or don't monetize it. Just do it for the potential it has for your career. Do it to prove that you're right. Do it because you can.)
You can do it on the side and still collect a paycheck. If you don't get caught first, tell your publisher what you've done after you've succeeded.
Or just quit now, and call the knucklehead in a few months and tell him he can buy your business.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising