The End Is Nigh For Niche Sites And Blogs: Mia Freedman

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Emma Mackenzie
By Emma Mackenzie
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At the Mamamia Women’s Network’s Upfronts in Sydney yesterday morning, founder Mia Freedman declared niche sites are declining and “mummy blogs are almost over”.

However, Felicity Grey, managing director of blog advertising community Nuffnang, says they have yet to see any kind of decline, and more and more bloggers are joining the community.

“While there is a growth in social media influencers (those influencers without blogs), blogging remains a main-stay in Australia and we can’t see it declining anytime soon,” she told B&T.

“With the rise of social media and video, bloggers have new exciting channels to explore, new audiences to reach and new ways to further amplify their content. It’s an exciting time and brands understand now better than ever the power and influence of bloggers for their campaigns.”

Similarly, Hannah O’Donnell, founder of PR company Straight Up PR, said it’s very much not the decline of blogs, rather the beginning of them.

“Blogs have only been on the increase in recent years, however what we are starting to see is the credible bloggers rising to the top and becoming increasingly more popular and those that lack substance falling behind,” she said.

“The blogging landscape is much more competitive these days and as a consumer and publicist it’s only making the platform more interesting.”

Freedman’s comments yesterday came after findings the network uncovered during its studies throughout the year.

“She’s moving away from niche sites,” said Freedman, referring to women. “It’s a big shift. We know that she’s busy, and that’s the key to understanding this. She doesn’t have time to visit lots of different home pages or blogs or even necessarily one every day.

“We’ve really seen the twilight year of mummy blogs. Mummy blogs are almost over. In fact, personal blogs in general, have pretty much collapsed in engagement this year.”

Nuffnang’s Grey however said there will always be a space for niche sites.

“There will always be a place in Australia for a variety of opinion and stories and while its great to see new business models emerging in the digital space there remains a valid place for the many bloggers on the web each contributing to the Information Age in their own unique way,” she added.

“This spread of media sources is vital for our society to flourish and different opinions to be heard. We don’t see this changing and each year we see more and more people taking to the Internet to tell their stories.”

In a blog post on blog ranking site Catablog, Jayne Moore questions Freedman’s statements, saying the founder of Mamamia should give more credit to the successful bloggers out there. Read her piece here.

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