Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Is BMG Making money?

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Let it be said I have enjoyed this blog and find it has given a voice to many who other wise would remain unheard.

I believe Bob, David and Charlie had the best of intentions when they started BMG and I admire their success.

As of late what I have been seeing is a lot of commercialization to the BMG site. I have seen David on NECN and others who have used the blog as a type of notoriety vehicle, yet as we who follow BMG know, not all ‘launches” of info are garnished by the famed three who created the site.

I showed the site to a friend who lives in California who brought to may attention that this site with the entire banner set up and Google ads appears to be profitable.

So I ask the question.

What is the financial status of the BMG site?

Has BMG taken money from political campaigns for advertisement?

To what extent has the multiple banners adds that now appear in a lengthy manner contributed to financial status of BMG.

Has Charlie, David or Bob been paid for TV appearances or other speaking engagements related to the contents on the BMG site?

If BMG was designed for the expression of free thought and to examine the political situation within Massachusetts then to examine the financial aspect of this site would appear to be fair game.

Again, I do like this site and read it daily, I just think this is a legitimate question and rather than wonder I thought I would put it out for the answering.

And so no one wonders, this is not a republican ploy; I am registered independent and I and will vote for Deval in the November 7th election. 

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Comments

  1. I’m not really sure why you care, but I think that if they choose to say they’re doing you a favor. They certainly don’t have any obligation to.

  2. Because the Three Wise Guys Men deserve it after building one of the best platforms to discuss politics at the state level in the country.  Unlike a lot of similar folks, they not only attend to technical issues and front page posts, but liberally sprinkle ideas in the comments and enter into conversation on user posts.  But as someone who uses the site for my own gain for free, I don’t feel a need to kow its economics. 

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    I’ve never seen any of these gentlemen take credit for others’ work, and quite frankly they have the chops to stand on their own as analysts in the media; this site merely brought them to prominence.

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    I imagine Charlie, Bob, and David have taken money for advertisements, because they seem too smart to give away the ads on the right side of the site for free.  I also imagine that the media’s current perception of blogs as interesting shiny things from (dum dum DUM) the FUTURE! helps out as well.  Just as Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is not the only force behind DailyKos, but is rather the public face, I’m content with these guys as our public face.

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    I hope they’re raking it in, and I have no need to know to what amount.

  3. I don’t have a problem with people making money, and by the looks of the ads on this site, who ever “owns” this blog is making some money.  Good for them.

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    People should be paid for their work.  I would like to be paid for my comments–is 2 cents a word okay?

  4. to the extent I understand them.

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    Yes, of course we sell ads.  Do you think we’d have that absurd blinking “Worst President Ever” thing or “meet your meat” on our site for free?  Since we’ve started selling ads, they’ve generated a couple hundred bucks which we use to defray expenses like web hosting, off-site internet access, etc.  You can see how much we sell our ads for, and compare our rates to those of other blogs, by visiting blogads.

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    As far as money from campaigns goes, Deval Patrick bought an ad early in the primary cycle before he went on TV, and John Bonifaz bought one shortly before the primary.  We charge candidates the same rates we charge any other advertiser. 

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    I can assure you that if you divide the paltry sum the ads have generated by the hundreds and hundreds of hours the three of us put into this site, it would come out that we earn literally pennies per hour.  We are not in this for the money.

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    As far as TV appearances, etc. go, we have not been paid for a single one of them.

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    I have no idea what you mean by using BMG as a “notoriety vehicle.”  To the extent the newspapers, TV stations, etc., want to talk to us about this blog, or have us on to talk about politics (as on NECN), we’re happy to oblige — it can only increase traffic, which benefits the users of the site and the message that we want to get out.

    • You love it and you know it! grin

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      (Just FYI for anyone who isn’t Bob, David, or Charley who doesn’t already know it – I’m 100% kidding.)

    • Some of the paltry profits from this venture have been plowed into the various BMG parties — recent events at Jimmy Tingle’s, for example — including some free Redbones barbeque for people signing up early. Fattening up their readership…

  5. is the cost of maintaining what is arguable the highest traficked political website in Massachusetts.  The Soapblox platform isn’t free and neither is the hosting.  I’m sure the ad revenue goes to cover those costs.

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    If the proprietors of this site make enough to cover costs, plus a bit extra, I don’t see the problem.  I’m sure if you work out how much time the guys spend not just posting, but also working to create the community, Bob, Charley and David they aren’t even close to being compensated properly.

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    Also, I don’t believe that BMG have any control over the content of the ads – so I suppose any (liberal) candidate could buy ad space. 

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    Plus, they did give away free BBQ at the Unity Party, so there ya go.  🙂

  6. Don’t forget, Soapblox charges for hosting.  This whole endeavor isn’t free for them.  I’d be surprised if they do more than break even.

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    That said, of course they’re all being funded in secret by George Soros and Howard Dean.  You guys haven’t been getting your checks, too?

  7. First, a clarification. This is a pet peeve of mine. “Notoriety” is defined as “the state of being known for some unfavorable act or quality.” I think you really mean “fame.”

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    I think this is a good time for me to issue some sage advice to Bob, David, and Charley: Be careful what you ask for!

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    It is clear that you crave fame. There’s no other explanation for your need to appear on NECN and political talk radio shows. But use caution. I can’t even count the number of people who started out with a few appearances on NECN and now can’t walk down the street without being hounded for photos and autographs. These poor souls now read about their marital problems and their children’s struggles with addiction on the pages of the tabloids.

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    Sadly, once you are famous the toothpaste can not be put back in the tube. You are a celebrity for life. I would hate to see any of you washed up and appearing on the Surreal Life a few years hence.

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    So please, Bob, David, and Charley. Resist the bright lights of NECN and remain humble bloggers.

    • I’m sorry.  The airwaves are full, full of conservatives.  We joke about Soros, but Scaife and friends fund all sorts of wingnuts — young and old, quiet academics and bloviating blowhards.  If liberalism is ever going to get play in the media, we need liberals to be interviewed early and often, to get lots of practice, to become so compelling their absence is missed.

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      In some religions, it is a virtue to celebrate the success of others.  Let us hope the owners of this site — and others like them — appear more and not less often on television. Don’t we ultimately want liberal voices to be as well funded as right-wing talk radio and Fox News?  That cannot be had without success of a very commercial sort.

  8. I heard that David is the reason that Reese Witherspoon broke up with her husband this week and that they plan to marry and adopt a baby from the third world.

      • Wow!  Talk about a labor of love!  I think everyone should make a pledge (just like PBS).  Put me down for twenty bucks.  This is the cheapest entertainment in town.

      • Anyway, whether it is $250 or $50 the point is it is pretty small — although greater than the miniscule cost of operations. I stand by my advice that bloggers should not quit their day jobs.

  10. …from the other side of the street.

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    I don’t even have ads.  I DO have a Cafe Press store, with Porcupine mugs and doo-dads, but only two people have bought anything in almost two years.  I have a friend, Radio Equalizer – every time he’d trash Al Franken, an ad for Al’s book would appear on his site from Google ads.  I DO have BlogAdSwap, but no cash changes hands.

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    MoJo – I think what you are asking, obliquely, is WHY would anybody do this if there isn’t any money?

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    Well, we’re certifiable.

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    I met David for the first time at the little ‘do’ at Harvard, and we found something in common that may contribute to our willingness to work for free.  We are both essayists – not novelists, not polemicists, but comfortable with the 1,000 word form.  And frankly, other than being an editorial writer, the days when magazines like the Atlantic Monthly would publish witty, erudite little bits of writing are pretty much gone.  But we both still love to write – so we blog.

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    Realy, being able to share your thoughts and have them appreciated drives most writers – not the Robin Cooks or Robert Parkers, perhaps (and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Spenser) but the rest of the writers, who are like actors waiting tables.

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    Or writing on BMG.

    • Some of us got into it because no one else was doing it…or at least, that’s why I started my blog. Though I do admit to liking writing, it’s of the fictional or poetical sort generally.

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      Which of course I have even less time for than I used to, seeing as I blog for peanuts far too much. ;P

  11. The “____ is a sellout/secretly working for XXX candidate/making a profit from our posts” ploy.

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    Markos got this kind of attention and when he did, the registered members there rightly laughed the concern troll off the board.

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    News flash: both the Herald and the Globe are for-profit operations, as are the major news stations. Do you read the papers? Do you watch television news? If so, what possible difference could it make that the owners of this site also defray their bandwidth and ISP expenses with ads?

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    Bottom line, Bob, Dave and Charlie are under no obligation whatsoever to open their books or otherwise explain their financial arrangements for this site to you or anyone else. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read or post here. It’s that simple.

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    And as for this (emphasis mine),

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    I have seen David on NECN and others who have used the blog as a type of notoriety vehicle, yet as we who follow BMG know, not all ‘launches” of info are garnished by the famed three who created the site.

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    can you explain what the heck that means? Because I honestly haven’t a clue what you are trying to say here.

    • The three of them knows how modest they all are about this. (For one thing, getting onto NECN isn’t like making, like, really big or anything.) They’re filling in a niche – “blogger-liberal-newplaything” – that the media seems obsessed with lately, and getting a new voice into the fray to boot. IMHO, that’s a great thing.

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      When you see a self-deferential post about one of their appearances on TV, when Charley says “I still don’t know know why the hell anyone cares about my opinion,” they really mean it. They aren’t seeking out ANYthing. It just keeps getting thrust upon them.

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      I should know, I’m in the same boat though on a much, much smaller scale. Seriously, though, this is a pretty small pond, even when talking about the Globe or NECN, it’s easy to be a big fish.

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      And I’m not just saying that because David’s got gills. grin

    • Don’t you believe that all BMG users should be equally garnished by the notriety vehicle?  All your bases . . .

  12. Not me.  But if anyone really is off-put by the notion that someone at BMG could be making a few bucks (and I bet very few bucks) then DON’T use the website!  That’s easy enough isn’t it????

  13. You come into someone else’s yard to play, hang out–for free–and then feel comfortable asking the owner how much money he makes?

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    Here’s the deal:  you come over to BMG’s yard to play.  You play by the rules; everything is peachy keen.  You don’t play by the rules; you get the boot.  There’s no charge to you either way.  Beyond that, it’s none of your business who gets paid what by whom. 

  14. Again … I haven’t made one red cent since we started this site. At most, I’ve been refunded out of our ad “kitty” for things like conference fees (at UMass) and internet access at the convention ($50!!!).

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    So kindly piss off and start your own blog. And before you go on NECN with Braude, read the papers and get a good night’s sleep.

  15. What is it with liberals and the idea that anything politically related we do should be for free? When will people realize that it’s one reason Republicans are successful and Democrats have lost for more than a decade? Republicans have turned politics into an industry, one where participants are richly rewarded. Democrats expect college interns to do it for free, then get the next crop of college interns. Democrats don’t retain their talent.

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    I’ve had ads on my site for about a month because I literally do this for hours every day. I’ve made enough to fill the gas in my car for the trip to Worcester I took to do a blogger panel.

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    And I’ll tell you this, I’m a helluva lot more excited to see guys like David and Charley on the tv and hear them on the radio than I am some random Republican and Democratic paid affiliate. At least I a) know them and trust them and b) know they’re less likely to bloviate and more likely to tell it like it really is. While I’d like to see NECN and the like broaden their horizon and invite sharp Massachusetts bloggers like Lynne, Susan and Mike – who I think are every bit as good as Charley, David and Bob – I do appreciate the fact that the citizen journalists, bloggers, etc. are getting some attention because we offer a much different (and I think better) vision of what’s going on. We’re independent from campaigns, for the most part, and will actually discuss politics honestly. That’s a helluva lot more than you can expect from most TV and Radio guests, who are generally hacks from the campaigns.

    • A note to the author of this diary:

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      It’s not like you have to pay to go to this site. If you don’t like the ads, don’t click on them. (Personally, I ALWAYS try to remember to click on ads once a day before I close down the site, but that’s only because I’m nice).

  16. I’m a bit late to this, but … shouldn’t BMG be making money? I trust David, Bob & Charley when they say “bloggers, don’t quit your day jobs,” but if this site provides something of value, shouldn’t it also be worth something?

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    The knee-jerk response from professional journalists (not univeral — I belong to that community) about blogs — and the Internet in general — is the idea that you shouldn’t give away your content for free, that it devalues your labor.

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    The opposite argument is that there is non-monetary benefit to a site like this. A civic benefit. And perhaps, as well, influence.

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    Long term, I think this is a good question.

  17. Mo Jo

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    I’ve enjoyed your posts and the perspectives you’ve shared here. My partner and I are seeking the advice and assistance of a family advocate. I would be grateful for a private conversation with you.

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    My apologies to all for posting this on the public blog.

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    thank you

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    gandhipillow@yahoo.com

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