Saturday, April 11, 2009

Me, The News Aggregator

With all the recent discussion about the rise of news aggregators and the fall of traditional media outlets, the realization that I -- little ol' me -- have become a news aggregator is quite enlightening.

This discovery occurred very late one evening this week, after taking a few bad beats in poker and tipping a few drinks at a hip local watering hole with a few friends. While drinking a Miller High Life stubbie (yes, they're back in after a 20 year vacation; who would have thought 7 ounce bottles of blue collar suds would be the rage), the conversation moved to news, how we consume it and how the decline of mainstream sources was creating a whole new generation of sources.

Then several of my drinking comrades in quick succession informed me in quick succession that I was one of their news sources. Specifically, they referred to the commentary and links to news I write daily in Facebook status updates and Twitters tweets, and how they listened to my comments and read items I pointed to (I'm told my Sarah Palin rants last fall influenced the election...totally dude...).

This took me by surprise. Despite working with and monetizing the long tail and social media for a living, it never occurred to me that people might get anything more than a few seconds of entertainment from my blurbs. My impetuous little stream of consciousness makes the news and serves as an editorial voice for my social graph.

I am the New York Times. And so are you.

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