Planting Liberally

I don't think he realizes it, but Jeff Jarvis just figured out a way for newspapers to survive and thrive, and a way to support bloggers. In today's post on Google's video/audio/map/classified search extravaganza, Jarvis observes:

If you know that neighbors in Montclair read this blog — and they do — then you have a place to put house and restaurant ads you sell, if you're in a network with that blogger (who can also sell ads on your pages, by the way). But can you afford to start blogs for every town and job description in your state? Of course, not — especially not now. But it’s in your interest for them to exist. So you need to support them. How? Well, for starters, sell ads for them and promote them and figure out what else you can do for them.

Huh. Famous Ray's Original Pizza advertising on blogs? And seeking out local bloggers to form relationships? Good luck with that. Jayme's Hip and Artsy Coffee Co-op, maybe. But there are plenty more Ray's than Jayme's, and by the time that situation changes, the blogosphere will be decades old. But how about Famous Ray's advertising with the Boston Globe, which has a local blog ad network where it can place Ray's ads in a way that Ray could see results (with coupon codes or whatever)? And what about the Boston Globe sponsoring a local blogger training agency, to create bloggers where none exist? It's not hard to see how newspapers are perfectly positioned to create local blogospheres out of whole cloth, and it's not hard to see how newspapers can attract small business ad dollars. It's also not hard to see how this whole enterprise would revolutionize the whole ordeal of running a newspaper, and of running a blog, for that matter. So, ahem, Boston Globe? Let's get it going, shall we?