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# Blogher: Finally, the Closing Session Summary
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2007/03/blogher_finally_the_closing_session_summary/
- Published: 2007-03-26T23:28:38.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T12:00:16.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: blogher, blogher business, Journalism, Publishing

[![Stacy Morrison](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/blogherstacy-tm.jpg?resize=199%2C150 "Stacy Morrison")](https://i2.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/blogherstacy.jpg?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)Finally, here’s my write-up of the closing Blogher keynote. I’ve had this one on the back-burner, because it’s very much in my field — online publishing — and I wanted to mull over the issues it raised, but also because jet lag really, really gave me a kicking on the trip back from New York. (And now I’m writing this while I wait for a flight to Dublin. Ah, the jet-setting blogger lifestyle.)

This is by no means a complete write-up. You can find one of those on [Licence to Roam](http://blog.bibrik.com/archives/2007/03/blogher%5Fbiz%5F-%5Fclosing%5Fkeynote.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com).

The panel were four women from the major media in various stripes: Debi Fine, [iVillage](http://www.ivillage.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) president; [Marissa Mayer](http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), VP of Search Poducts and User Experience at Google; [Redbook Magazine](http://www.redbookmag.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) editor in chief Stacy Morrison; and [WashingtonPost.Newsweek](http://washpostco.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) Interactive CEO Caroline Little.

So, what do they think is needed for a media company to survive in the Web 2.0 world? Google has a fluid structure because analysts suggested that “organisations tend to mirror the process they’re putting into place,” Marissa Mayer. You have a hierarchical process, you’ll end up with a hierarchical company – and an inability to move quickly in a web world.

Caroline Little suggested that you have to be flexible and try different things. Interestingly, the firm had created a “[skunk works](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk%5Fworks?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)” group filled with rather extreme programmers who are young and very creative, and thus able to get new things live very quickly.

Mayer suggested that Google’s “free day” policy – giving employees 20% of their time to work on personal projects – lead to 50% of the firm’s new launches. The message coming out of this loud and clear was that you need to free people up from the mundane routine of the day-to-day to create something special.

But what is that “something special”. Stacy Morrison of Redbook ([nicely profiled on Six Log](http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/news/2007/03/redbook%5Fyou%5Fare.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)) described it as creating delight – “That’s what makes people come back”. That sounds a lot like one of my pet theories; that it’s magazines which strike an emotional relationship with their readers rather than a purely utilitarian one that create real relationships.

[![Marissa Mayer](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/bloghermarissa-tm.jpg?resize=101%2C148 "Marissa Mayer")](https://i2.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/bloghermarissa.jpg?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

She also suggested that we’re beginning to see the end of the major destination site. I’m still not 100% sure what she meant by that, as there are clearly a group of websites that are major destinations in their own right – MySpace is the obvious answer. But is the point that visitors don’t go to “MySpace Central”, but to their own page within MySpace? That’s certainly a very different concept from the old portal idea.

Fine suggested that a portfolio approach works – see what sticks. And that seems like a very good idea. The incremental cost of launching a new blog is tiny compared to a paper or even a conventional online product.

[![Caroline Little](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/bloghercaroline-tm.jpg?resize=100%2C150 "Caroline Little")](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2007/03/bloghercaroline.jpg?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

A member of the audience suggested that sometimes the best new media writers are not people who are traditional authors or journalists, which in my experience is often true. ~~Little~~ Morrison suggested the controversial and contrary idea that people who are trained at journalism schools are the best: they can be coached through new methods. (My experience is that this is often as much a process of re-education as it is of education, but that’s meat for another post.)

However, she suggested that there are three groups of journalists, with different strengths (my interpretations in brackets):

1. Journalists who just want the facts, and who shape them into narrative structures. *These are your classic news reporters and features writers*.
2. Those who can talk about their lives off the cuff –\* people who were ideal opinion columnists in the past, and who make perfect bloggers now.\*
3. Those who produce “copy”; quick, sexy sell, sizzle copy – *think product and fashion pages in consumer mags*

“The customer has always ruled,” said Fine. “The customer now rules with a tighter, firmer hand.”

Because, of course, the customer can now easily become your competitor…