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journal.pngThe Wall Street Journal still doesn’t get the blogosphere. It doesn’t matter how many stories they run about blogs. It doesn’t matter that they have some blogs on their site. Deep down they hate us. And, they don’t seem to be too great at math either.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, there’s an article about political candidates advertising in blogs.

“The most popular political blogs reach a daily audience of just a few million readers, according to a study released last October by George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.”

And here’s a statement from the Journal’s own site:

“With a print and online circulation of nearly 2.1 million, the Journal reaches the nation’s top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country.”

A few million was more than 2.1 million last time I checked.
“All told,” the Journal says, “online spending by candidates, political parties and third-party special-interest “soft money” groups, like Moveon.org, could hit $80 million during the 2008 cycle compared with $29 million in 2004, according to an estimate by PQ Media LLC, a Connecticut research firm.”

“For now,” the article notes, “Internet ad spending is small compared with spending on traditional radio, broadcast and cable advertising. The best-read blogs still charge comparably little for ads. A standard-size weekly ad purchased through Blogads costs $2,900 on the progressive site DailyKos for example, or $250 at Hotair.com, a conservative video blog site. By comparison, a 30-second broadcast television spot could set back a candidate anywhere from $90,000 to $110,000 a week in a market like Des Moines, according to Evan Tracey of the TNS Media Intelligence’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.”

Yes, and that is the point.
Clarification: While spending on blogs is smaller by comparison, blogs have very specific audiences, all of whom are there entirely by choice and who are likely to share the blog’s point of view. Dollar for dollar, blog ads pack more power and influence than traditional media.
And, as the numbers prove, the reach can be just as broad as the Journal’s.