Bloggers eschew lists ... or do they?

If there's one thing that mainstream media hold dear, it's a deeply-held belief in lists. From the Fortune 500 to Runner's World's "25 Training Tips" to Cosmo's "275 Fall Looks," lists are a mainstay formula of the magazine establishment, so very old school. This is the kind of stuff blogs disdain. Or do they? The number of top-blogger lists seems to keep growing, and not just from mainstream media trying to glom onto the flavor of the month. Technorati, the blog search engine, publishes a Technorati 100 of A-listers. At the recent Blogher conference, some participants argued woman bloggers need more representation on the A-List. Now blogtrepreneur Jason Calacanis wants to up the ante and create a list of the top 500 blogerati. (Full disclosure: I worked for Calacanis years ago on a magazine that fervently believed in lists.) There's even Blogebrity, a site many initially thought was a joke, which wants to be some sort of gatekeeper of the A-List. Some confirmed A-Listers, like Fred Wilson and Jeff Jarvis, think this navel-gazing is a fairly ridiculous aping of old media. But if blogging keeps growing at such a fast rate, it's inevitable some bloggers will get sucked into the mainstream media vortex. Perhaps power lunches at Michael's are next.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

August 5, 2005 in Morrissey | Permalink