Scott Karp on the new consolidation in media

Scott Karp at publishing2.0 has written a thought-provoking post that's worth your attention.

Read the whole thing in full here

Here's a taste:

"The new media consolidation includes:

• Buying and selling links to influence search traffic — a practice Google is cracking down on to protect its own consolidation
• “Citizen media” sites like the NowPublic, AssociatedContent, and the recently acquired Newsvine, which consolidate independent content creation activity
• New York Times bringing the Freakonomics blog onto its domain and cranking out new blogs (over 40 now) in order to crank out more and more content at a fraction of the cost of its traditional print content operation
• Vertical ad networks that comprise mostly niche sites you’ve never heard of but that get tons of traffic from search
• Traffic networks — a larger strategy that encompasses ad networks, blog networks, affiliate networks (e.g. Glam, Reuters’ new Affiliate Network) — networks like CNN’s partnership with Internet Broadcasting’s local TV sites, which created the largest news “site” after Yahoo News

These represent one of two principal new media consolidation trends, i.e. the consolidation of content creation. The second trend is consolidating the power to decide WHICH content gets attention."