Does Geography Make a Difference?
Here’s some coverage from our friends in the Philippine mainstream media. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has published an article about the Blog Herald’s recent sale.
FILIPINO professional bloggers Abe Olandres and J. Angelo Racoma are set to take over the Blog Herald now that it is under new management, INQ7.net learned.
Asked about their plans, Racoma said they intend to make Blog Herald more like a ‘mainstream news and information website on professional blogging … He also disclosed plans of expanding its regional content for the Americas, Asia, Europe, and other regions.
With news like these, it’s inevitable that some people start getting concerned about the offshoring of high-profile online real estate such as the Blog Herald. However, should geography really matter?
I would say no.
I thought the ‘net was supposed to be the great equalizer, and that it shouldn’t really matter whether you’re in the States or in the Arctic (wait, do they have connectivity at the North pole?).
Still, there is the issue of language and, more importantly, culture. But we’re all netizens, aren’t we? And as such, our views and abilities should transcend race and culture.
Would the voice of the Blog Herald change, now that perspectives are coming from the other side of the world? Perhaps yes. But that’s normal in any circumstance where a publication changes hands.
And even though the new set of editors are Filipino, I wouldn’t worry about dominance from any specific nationality or culture. The Blog Herald has an international audience, after all, and we intend to keep it that way. We’re working on getting more contributors and columnists on board–and these will be from around the world.
Update: Added link to Inquirer article.
It’s just that those in silicon valley will almost always get the scoop.
I think Duncan did a great job at running this site from one of the furthest places from the US: Western Australia.
And I enjoy reading it from the same place, and I believe I will continue to do so.
Good luck to you all! :)
p.s. weren’t most of the recent contributors of The Blog Herald ‘international’ anyway? I believe there is/was Sweden, Australia, Canada…
I think getting the scoops will have more to do with ‘who you know’ and resourcefullness than geography… but I guess we’ll have to wait and see! :D
The trick is going to be keeping the heterogeneity of content from diluting the Blog Herald’s unique identity and role on the internet.
It might be wise to break up the new content into “newspaper” sections, so that only the content that has wide appeal appears on the main page.
Just a suggestion of course.
the current staff – well the staff under me – was from the US, Australia, Sweden, & Canada..
The only area I think it matters is when it comes to dollars and cents. Advertisers like American Readers. It’s horrible but its true.
One quick point to ad and go deeper into the whole “Does Geography matter issue’.
If you have a certain % of readers coming from any certain zone of people deemed by Google to be potential risk zones your adsense revenue will certainly drop in accordance with that risk. For a long time Paypal had a similar risk rating on certain parts of the world. Likewise, Adsense has similar policing it does over sites with a large foreign readership. Likewise if I’m not mistaken your new hosting company is also located ‘offshore’ meaning owned by a foreign entity. Also another warning sign in the eyes of adsense.
These are details that no matter how hard you try to hide them from the publics eye Adsense which is your number one dawg will know and have to sort through.
I saw this when I moved a few of my own operations to Mexico and was always logging in from Tijuana. It effected my revenues.
Testing..
I agree with David Krug…The Philippines is included on the risk zone and Paypal cant be use both ways there.I guess Abe and Angelo should start recruiting FilAm ProBloggers in the Golden State and moved its new Headquarters in Silicon Valley. to satisfy the needs and requirements of the advertizers.At present there are Known FilAms and Indians that are working for or are partners with VCs, Patent and Trade Mark Lawyers and Executives ans IT Engineers in Startups and WEB2 and VOICE2 Companies that definitely have intimate knowledge with the inner workings and Buzz in the Valley that can help THB increase its readership.Its also wise to keep its present Bloggers while actively headhunting for new Brilliant ones.