WSJ: Bloggers face life after the election

In the WSJ, Carl Bialik takes a hard look at post-election blogging. He talks to two happy advertisers.

Brian Clark, who just ordered a bunch of ads for Sharp’s Aquos televisions:

“We think that there’s an interesting opportunity now with the political blogs, if you aren’t taking on the political topic itself,” said Mr. Clark, adding, “We’re looking at this as a way to reach a diverse audience with a product that has nothing to do with politics whatsoever.” Mr. Clark, who calls his company a “new media buzz consultancy,” said readers of all blogs are an attractive audience: “A lot of these people are influencers. They are just as likely to have a blog of their own where they end up writing about something of interest to them.” He likes the political sites in part because post election, “There’s certainly not the competition for the slots anymore.”

And Beth Hirsch, from Audible.com:

“People read political blogs because they are passionate news junkies looking for content and information,” Beth Kirsch, an online marketing manager for Audible, wrote on her own blog about the campaign. “Moreover, blog readers talk to each other and their friends about what they read and see on blogs, and the news media trolls the blogosphere looking for stories.”

In an interview, Ms. Kirsch said, “It was a very effective and successful campaign.” She said she’d be interested in running ads in the future, targeted to blogs’ topics and specific readers. As for the potentially controversial content on blogs, Audible spokesman Jonathan Korzen said, “There are always people who will accuse us of being to the left and right of their political opinions. We hope they will forgive us. We are a retailer, and like any retailer we sell books that speak to the right and to the left.”

So far, seems more like an optimal path than an obituary.