The inevitable post-election lull seems like a good time to sits and think.
And one of the things I sits and thinks about is the future of small conservative blogs.
There seems to be a corporate consolidation of blogs on the right and the left. Already liberals are bemoaning the waning influence of the netroots movement, Netroots Bloggers Mark 10th Birthday in Decline and Struggling for Survival,
I see a similar phenomenon happening in the conservative blogosphere.
When I first started blogging in 2008, there was a vibrant group of small independent conservative blogs, many if not most composed of newbies like me. There was cohesiveness of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama-Reid-Pelosi axis. No one made any money, it was a cause.
We survived emotionally on the kindness of bigger blogs which generously spread not just traffic, but more important, attention. I can’t tell you how much it meant to my morale to get noticed.
There is no way Legal Insurrection could have grown without the help of others. I have done my best to pay back that kindness by spreading links to smaller conservative blogs.
I’ve noticed a change.
There has been a corporatization and consolidation of the conservative blogosphere, and the kindness to strangers seems to be waning. There’s no reason to name names; these are good people who are following a natural business path. (Thankfully, HE has not gone corporate.)
And why should anyone spread the wealth? Why shouldn’t small conservative blogs have to prove their worth to readership? “Cry me a river that no one links,” probably is a justified respose.
Yet these small conservative blogs play an important role. I’ve highlighted the role of Not One More Red Cent in the rise of Marco Rubio against establishment hack Charlie Crist. There are numerous other examples. I’d like to think that we made a difference every now and then.
I have more questions than answers.
But I do see a change coming to the small conservative blog blogosphere,
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