Jeff Jarvis writes: “The bottom line is that entertainment and media can build a new, more profitable and efficient bottom line if only they let the audience help them. They can eliminate many of the middlemen. … Some companies will wise up and prosper. And many new companies and relationships will grow; I see huge opportunity in creating new collections of talent, new ways to produce, and new ways to distribute.” (Via Matt Welch.)

An estimated $236 billion will be spent this year in the US on traditional print, broadcast, radio and online advertising.

Frustrated that their money is being wasted, some advertisers are resorting to hiring models to infiltrate us with their products. Here are some other wacked promotions: “Procter & Gamble sent out a trailer of elegant, air- conditioned Porta Potties, complete with hardwood floors and aromatherapy candles, to state fairs last summer to extol the virtues of Charmin toilet paper. Bottled-water producer Evian paid to repair a run-down public pool in the London neighborhood of Brixton and tile the bottom with its brand name ‘ a message that was hard to miss for passengers flying in and out of nearby Heathrow Airport.”

Umm. Why not spend some of the $236 billion on media that people actually shout about?
Hint. Hint. Hint.
Hint. Hint.
Hint.

Here’s the first report of a marriage proposal precipitated by a blog. I’ve speculated before about the potential for blogs to cannibalize conventions, clubs, churches, corporations, and cities,… but I didn’t think about singles bars. (Via Instapundit.)

The first blogging TV personality is an 800-year-old Brazilian vampire who wears armor and a horned helmet. According to today’s NYTimes, the Internet division of the Brazilian media conglomerate Organizações Globo has done a deal with Pyra to provide blogs for several fictional characters from its new soap opera “O Beijo do Vampiro” (“Kiss of the Vampire”).

I had been betting on Homer Simpson as the first TVirtual blogger.

Pyra boss Evan Williams says he thinks 13% of 750,000 bloggers are Brazilian.

Mark Pilgrim writes: “I am consistently getting over 200 referrals a day from people searching [Google] for Ellen Feiss, a query for which I have ranked in the top 10 for the past 3 weeks when I discovered the Ellen Feiss store and an assortment of fan sites.” Six thousand unique visitors a month for one topic: many publishers would kill for aggregate readership like that.

Tara Sue Grubb, 26, is being hailed as the “first congressional candidate with a weblog.” She doesn’t offer a bio and doesn’t like linking, whether to other ideas or other community organizations or individuals. She doesn’t mention her opponent by name. And she writes things like “Prudent followership in a leader yields prudent leadership for the people.”

Well, we’ve got to start somewhere, I guess. I like the boldness of Dave Winer’s claim that “in five years every member of the US House will have a weblog and will be communicating directly with the electorate.” That may be true. But Dave doesn’t state the corollary: 98% of Congress will be new before every member blogs. These old dogs just won’t blog, or at least do it naturally enough to convince the public. Furthermore, the political infrastructure that manufactures Congressmen also will have to be junked/rewired.

Building new markets takes decades. (See prior post.) Unless armed with guillotines or AK40s, revolutions are the same.

(8/26/02: Dave has worked up a new site that includes a blogroll to Grubb’s opponent.)

Dave Winer writes: “Ten years isn’t enough time to create a new market.”

Cory Doctorow writes: “when I was a kid, I used to go downtown and peel off (expired) street-posters and save them in a scrap-book as a record of all the events and shows happening in my city.” A unique chronicle of a community’s stream of conscious vanishes with each trash can of ephemera.

Leaving Washington for Rhode Island, Anne Holland writes: “the heart of journalism in America is going virtual. Many of the editors and reporters I admire most now live in places like Wisconsin, Arkansas, and the backwoods of Connecticut. All you need is a headset, a sensible long distance phone plan, an ISP, and you are in journalism central my friend!”

OK, there should be a couple more betas live today. For any of you happening on this site by chance, I’ll say that Blogads = classified ads in blogs.

We think bloggers are the ultimate intellectual entrepreneurs. Blogger passion and dedication will inspire a new universe of commercial communication.

To read a lot more about what got us started, visit this blog posting.