If you haven’t yet been by HarrisburgNightlife’s new site, go check it out. I’ll wait.

Done? Ok. Mike’s been busy blogging up a storm while the rest of us have been busy idling*. It’s always good to see someone keeping up on the DT scene. One particularly good post can be found here.

I realize the issue has been brought up an infinite number of times already, starting back in ‘01: Bloggers are the new mass media. To an extent, it’s true. Aside from benefits such as instant dissemination, blogging offers content providers a means to provide subject matter that isn’t mainstream enough to be covered by a local newspaper, but remains of interest to a number of people. What this means is that even though the Patriot gives a regular nod to area nightlife, it can’t possibly make a business case out of providing the kind of in-depth coverage of events and venues that sites like floor9, HarrisburgNightlife, and all the other quality blogs in the area can.

Of course, the argument can be made that a blog will never hold the mass appeal of a newspaper. This is undeniably true; a blog that does hold such appeal has basically become an overwhelming slush of fluff content. But that very argument is its own downfall. Because most blogs cater to a comparitively narrow spectrum of knowledge or opinion, and because the number of blogs is so overwhelmingly massive, it’s very easy to pick and choose the information you want. With a quality RSS reader, you don’t even have to visit the site; just open your client and whammo, instant content gratification.

Don’t get me wrong. Traditional print media is in no danger of completely yielding to blogging — at least not anytime in the immediate future. In fact, it will take a lot of societal advances to get print media to fall to secondary status.

But when you visit a paper’s website and have to register before being slammed with badly-organized content jam-packed with full-motion video ads (complete with sound!) and popups, you really have to stop and wonder if they know what’s going on.

* - Ok, first of all, yes — I know there are more than two bloggers hitting downtown Harrisburg. Berevity is the soul of wit, or something. Second, none of us have really been “idling”. I only used the word “idling” so I wouldn’t have to type out “job hunting, working, interviewing, going to school, fixing houses, raising aardvarks, and launching nightclubs.” But now I have, so thanks for ruining it for everyone!