Because being on the cover of Business Week often means you're at a peak. It was great seeing Rafat Ali's picture on the inside of BW as one of The Big Shots of Blogdom, along with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Om Malik of GigaOM. PaidContent.org, Rafat's main blogging vehicle is on roll that will continue. In addition to the blog, Rafat has the event thing figured out: John Blossom reported "it's been many years since I've attended an executive-level conference that's had as much energy and buzz as EconSM," last weeks Economics of Social Media pow wow. And the move away from print and towards properties like paidcontent for breaking news was nicely summed up by Jason Calacanis this week:
"What this is really all about at the end of the day is that WIRED the print magazine--like other magazines and newspapers--are lost and adrift because they can't break stories any more. WIRED is six weeks old when you open it, hundreds of people read my blog posts minutes after they come out. It's impossible for print publications to have a "breaking news" role anymore, and they are certainly not going to be able to keep stories under wraps for six weeks when 90% of their subjects have blogs that are starved for content. Media is becoming two way, and print media can't keep up in a two way world. I think that people may have underestimated exactly how dead print is as a NEWS carrier--and why. Print is dead in the news role because it can't keep up with the conversation--not because people don't like print per say.
Rafat has the art, science and business of conversation figured out and that's why he's a must read and his events are becoming must-attends.
[BW has a great photo of Rafat on the beach in the rain with an umbrella, but it's not online. Photo here is courtesy of Rex Hammock.]
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