NYT: Seed Media, which produces science publications in print and online, is seeking to broaden its audience – and its appeal to advertisers – by introducing a network of blogs, or Web journals, devoted to science and science-related subjects. The network is to be made available on a Web site, scienceblogs.com, that is now operating in beta, or test, mode.
The Web site will initially bring together 15 blogs bearing names like Adventures in Ethics and Science, Cognitive Daily, Living the Scientific Life and Stranger Fruit.
One of the blogs, scienceg8 (pronounced “science gate”), is part of Seed Media, and the rest are independent. In coming weeks, Seed Media is hoping to have as many as 30 blogs on the network.
Seed Media will sell advertising on scienceblogs.com as it does in its magazine, Seed, which is published every other month, and on its Web site (seedmagazine.com). The idea is to not so much to carry ads for beakers, test tubes and centrifuges as to attract ads from marketers wanting to reach bright, curious consumers who buy products like automobiles, books, cellphones, computers, liquor, music and watches.
The blog network is a sign of the growing interest among media companies and advertisers in using new media for an old purpose: selling.
Blogs in particular are popular, as companies advertise on them, post comments on them and even sponsor their own. Recently, Budget Rent A Car bought ads on 177 blogs, Audi of America on 286 blogs and MSNBC on 800 blogs.
