Why no large sector British commercial bloggers-blame the BBC

Over at Techcrunch,Ashley Norris,wonders why unlike the USA and the likes of the Huffington Post,and Gawker media,we have not seen an explosion of independent commercial blogs.

He gives a number of reasons.

1.Economies of scale

US sites have at least five times more readers to aim at and that counts for an awful lot when most online advertising is still based around a CPM model

2.A conservatism amongst British advertisers

many brands and their agency planers have chosen to play it safe and will work with established media brands

3.a lack of UK media entrepreneurs

many of the most successful, blogs and websites in the UK have been developed by freelance journalists who have worked on their sites in addition to writing for others, and in many instances rival media.

4.a lack of top management support

As a rule European VCs don’t tend to be too interested in media unless it is supported by a technological innovation

5.whether there is a gap in the market

Several commentators have suggested that the explosion in successful blogs occurred largely because Americans distrust established media and see it as being in the pockets of big business

6.The BBC

Were the BBC to take a more enlightened view of British independent and social media it could do a lot to encourage young talent to develop UK media properties thereby greatly enriching British media.