GigaOM : » Its Time To Transition
Good buddy and former colleague Om Malik takes a deep breath and steps into the world of his own startup, accepting VC dough to make a business out of GigaOM while remaining on the Business 2.0 masthead as a contributing editor. It’s a shame he couldn’t release the news on his own terms, but he got Valleywagged in a big way, which sort of adds to the fun, so what the hell.
Om and I have been discussing his career possibilities for a long time, and I am proud of him for finally making a stab at realizing his vision — one which will surprise a lot of people when it emerges. This is more than stepping up AdSense on a blog, far more, and is the kind of transformative media play he helped put in place in 1995 at Forbes.com. This is the one guy who you want on your team when it comes to doing the right thing with online media.
I see no surprise that Om’s news is breaking so close to Scoble’s. The top bloggers are realizing the promise of decentralized media — that the byline can be the business — and each of them, in their own way, is doing something few can stomach or imagine. Call it “bloggerpreneurship” but it’s happening and going to happen more and more.
