Guido gets asked to speak at more and more dead-tree-press industry events, the stump speech has changed over the last year or so, whereas in the past Guido has said basically we (bloggers / new media) are going to have your (columnist’s / newspaper’s ) breakfast. The line has evolved even as the mediasaurs embrace blogging. The numbers tell the story:

Across the Atlantic old media is dealing with imploding advertising revenue and decreased mind share. After the New York Times and Washington Post the most powerful media force in politics according to academic studies is the Drudge Report, courted by Democrats and Republicans alike A three man operation versus old media titans?

Guido, with only part-time technical help and the occasional intern doing research, is run at a profit – unlike The Independent, Guardian or Telegraph – giving their online operations a good run for their money. The traditional commentariat now also has to deal with well funded professional newcomers such as PoliticsHome which has established a quality niche for political obssessives. The Guardian and New Statesman are embracing Liberal Conspiracy as the new media champion of the left, with news values and editorial judgement that has until now been lacking in comparison with ConservativeHome. They might reflect that when regime change comes, the media opposition to the Conservatives might be marshalled by Liberal Conspiracy rather than their own somewhat tired media clique.

New media operations like Gawker, HuffPo and Federated Media in the U.S. are earning tens of millions for bloggers, hitherto in Europe it has been more like tens of thousands, but that is now changing. Economic viability is important because as producing original content for new media becomes profitable, it will become better. Bloggers have mind share, they increasingly have mass market share and will therefore increasingly take a share of the profits…