Hugh Hewitt wrote yesterday that Townhall.com had reached 5,001 user-generated blogs. Hugh briefly noted why this growth has been possible, "The long tail at work."
In other words, Townhall.com has not only been able to identify and isolate conservatives who are in the market for a blog and previously would have used another "free" platform like blogspot or even their myspace page, but Townhall.com has also converted activists to become new bloggers/soldiers. With a pool of over 5k, we can assume that they are blogging about all sorts of interesting, niche conservative issues not covered anywhere else in the vast 'sphere.
In the comments of the post, Robert Bluey who blogs at Redstate and writes a weekly column for Townhall.com, asks a question which is worth discussing because it's a question many of us have always wondered. (You'll note that Bluey, a good friend of Townhall.com, continues the endless banter between himself and Dean Barnett.)
Surely a few of these 5,000 bloggers are better than Dean Barnett. Why not promote a few to the main Townhall blog like RedState and DailyKos do with their contributors?
Bluey's right. Wouldn't you expect the next Michelle Malkin or John Hawkins to rise organically from this pool of conservative talent?
The power/problem with the long tail is that while we increase overall size and variety, most of us are still content with the big, fat juicy short head -- the top national bloggers like Hugh, Michelle, Glenn, LGF, Captain's Quarters, Power Line, etc. We just don't have time to stumble upon blogs hoping that doing so was a good use of our limited time. So we end up at our regular watering holes day in and day out where we trust the content. We count on those national bloggers to point us to other niche blogs that we would have never heard about.
But is there a way to leverage the energy of 5,001 bloggers for the sake of the Revolution? I think so.
Townhall.com could take Rob's advice promote some its best bloggers to its national group blog where bloggers are typing right along Hugh, Dean, Matt and Mary Katharine. By doing so, they'd help identify new personalities and voices in the movement and send a clear signal to their community that blogging at Townhall.com means that your blog post might end up on the front-page of a site that gets a lot of eyeballs each day.
Further, a lot of the bloggers at Townhall.com are talking about state and local issues. Why not create 50 state group blogs for the Townhall.com community, tap an editor to run the operation on a volunteer basis and promote the best state-based content to that group blog? Townhall.com would be providing a forum that doesn't exist in most states for Republicans but does for liberals.
"The Long Tail." The theme for the 2008 election cycle. Let's hope we figure out how to effectively leverage it.
