WebProNews

MarketWatch has an interesting article by Frank Barnako on how blogs have changed the news business.

Frank specifically uses the yet unconfirmed Ask Jeeves purchase of Bloglines story as an example. He writes:

"If there's any question how Web logs and the Internet have changed the news business, talk with executives at Ask Jeeves Inc.

Chances are they spent the weekend trying to figure out how to stage their expected announcement that the company has acquired Bloglines, perhaps the most popular way to keep up with Web log postings and RSS feeds online.

Word of the buyout was passed along Friday by Mary Hodder, on her Weblog, Napsterization.org. She said the deal was done and pointed out that a new "official" Ask Jeeves blog featured tabs to find the most popular Web blogs was linked to Bloglines. She said the deal was to be announced Tuesday.

If and when Ask Jeeves does say it has acquired the free Weblog and directory service, and its database, investors, and the media may be difficult to excite. Secret's out of the bag - thanks to blogs."

I agree that bloggers are now first to many eBusiness stories.

It should be noted that WebProNews was the first news source to cover the story. Steve Rubel of Micro Persusion had an article in WebProNews within minutes of the original blog posts on the purchase rumor.

But yes ... bloggers had the story first.

Rich Ord is the CEO of iEntry, Inc. which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters. Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.