The Blogging Biz: It’s Not a Zero Sum Game

Uber Blogger Nick Denton threw a party at his SOHO loft. Denton, the man behind Gawker Media, a chain of large blogs that get a lot of mainstream press, impressed the west coasters and the buttoned down media with the copious cocktails and the swish hors d’oeuvres. Arianna Huffington reported in Yahoo.

“And much was made of how unusual it was to have Denton throwing a party for one of his perceived competitors. But then one of the great things about the blogosphere is that it’s not a zero-sum game. It’s not like Good Morning America fighting to take away viewers from the Today Show — and now the other way around. The growth is limitless. Indeed, the growth of Denton’s sites made it easier for the Huffington Post, just as the growth of HuffPost makes it easier for others. And so much is about linking to each other. So a new site’s success can actually help boost your readership.

But trust me, the night wasn’t all business. When it came time for toasts, Denton hopped onto a table so everyone could see him and asked me to join him (which made me feel — as soon as I had kicked off my high heels, that is — right back in Greece).

I loved his toast, especially when he read from Nikki Finke’s hysterical review of HuffPost which, within hours of our existence, declared us “such a bomb that it’s the movie equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar, and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one.” To which Nick responded: “In the annals of media criticism that was a misjudgment as embarrassing as, well, ‘Dewey Defeats Truman.'”