Hypothesis: Over time, BoingBoing and The New York Times will gradually converge in style and coverage, until they are nearly indistinguishable.
I’m not as crazy as you may think. For this to happen, the Times would have to start acting more blog-like. Many newspapers and magazines are already doing this; it’s only a matter of time before truly staid and respectable papers do, too. RSS feeds are just the tip of the iceberg.
And, BoingBoing would have to start acting more respectable. One or two libel suits would be all it would take to make a blog sit up and start acting a whole lot more circumspect in reporting the facts. That, plus enough advertising income to allow them to start hiring reporters and reporting original stories. Hell, they’ve already got beats — Cory, for DRM and geek toys; Xeni, for sex topics; David, for science and R&D; Mark, for obscure artists and cartoonists.
Granted, BoingBoing might not be the best example — it may be that Kos is more likely to turn into a newspaper, while newspapers turn into blogs. Whether there’s any money in it is another question altogether.
