• 24/7 Wall Street, Wednesday, October 3, 2007 10:45 AM

The next Internet land grab could come from the blogging sector, as major publishers swoop in to take over the Web's big name brand blogs. Many cover the tech sector: TechCrunch, GigaOm, Boing Boing, Ars Technica. Time Warner's AOL, for example, recently bought the consumer technology blog, Engadget.

Blogs have a terrific business model (the name brand ones do at least): They're cheap to set up and run, reach large, loyal audiences and make money. The political blog "The Huffington Post," which has an audience that's close to The Philadelphia Inquirer, boasts a much lower operating cost. Added to a New York Times Company or a Washington Post Co., that audience could be even bigger.

Web revenues are a meek 10% of these major publishers' total, and ad revenue isn't growing fast enough--the addition of a growing blog with nice margins could be a substantial benefit. The rumor of the day is that CNET is in talks to acquire TechCrunch. Would that spark a trend? For $100 million, these blogs could help out beleaguered Web portals and newspaper publishers.

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