Comments on: Professional Network Bloggers: Do they owe their networks a fiduciary duty?

By: Grokodile

Grokodile — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 04:05:51 +0000

Interesting. Does this imply the fast and loose way of doing business that is common over the Internet will eventually give way to a more regulated model?

In a way, I nope not, but I’ll understand if it does.

By: Darren McLaughlin

Darren McLaughlin — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 12:59:42 +0000

Nice post and insight into the debate. Do you think there’s a distinct legal advantage in either case? Is having exclusivity more or less likely to protect the blog network from a legal standpoint?

By: John Evans (Syntagma)

John Evans (Syntagma) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:02:34 +0000

Jim, when you’re paying a blogger to write one post a day, six days a week, you don’t own their soul. If you think you do, you will be disappointed, and you’ll alienate your blogger. Even if you tie them down to a rigid contract, what’s to stop them blogging under a pseudonym?

Since you can’t control everything, it’s better to take only what you pay for (one post a day) and, if it’s good stuff, be satisfied. You’re doing very well, because the blogger is creating Web real estate for you which may translate into a substantial payout down the line depending on your exit strategy.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:43:53 +0000

I’d just like to say at first what a well written post this is, indeed you just got a sub in bloglines from me, and I’m pretty tight with these but the way you articulate the conflict of interest provides plenty of scope for thought without being either judgemental or personal in what you are writing (certain ppl at 9rules should take note ).

I would say this though in relation to b5media’s bloggers, and that is whilst it is possible that scenario A is possible in our situation, our bloggers generally do not write “competing” blogs for other networks, nor would we be particularly happy if they did so, they tend to write on different, or even sometimes related topics, but not exactly the same.

In Colbert’s case (which started all this at 9rules) there is some scope for overlap with what he is doing elsewhere, however there is only a slight overlap in topic area and generally speaking those blogs are on different core subject areas. At the end of the day we trust our bloggers to do the right thing, and in nearly all cases to date, they have. The only time I can think of a case where this wasn’t the case, we made the decision to part company with that blogger, but I’d note that first and foremost we trust our bloggers, and we never work from a position of not trusting them to start with.

Keep up the great work