Randall Munroe Quotes

We are in niche consumption mode, but 'niche' doesn't mean 'small' anymore. Niche can mean focused, and particularly with the Web, which is a global audience... you can have something niche and still get 10 to 15 million views.

When you are producing for ABC, you are producing for a big tent network. So when you are thinking about your story lines and characters, you are thinking about broad appeal. When you are producing for a niche interest, you are producing for a different audience.

In 1998, I started a blog, something I could control very easily and update at my own whim.

I'm fortunate to make any money as a blogger.

One of the nice things about the Internet is you can do a comic that's just for Ph.D. students, or for truck drivers, and you get to reach all of them without having to satisfy the other 99%.

It's very, very hard to create something that is big these days because you have niche markets - and, you don't necessarily need to be big; the show is specifically created for a small group of people. You know, if it's on the USA network, well, then a small group of people is fine.

Well, there are more writers of blogs right now than there are readers, so that's clearly a vanity phenomenon.

I started my blog in 2002. That was pre-MySpace, pre-Facebook. That was back before newspapers realized they were going out of business. That was back when no one gave any credence to Internet writers.

The Internet is about giving the consumer exactly what they want, whether there's an audience of one or 1,000 or 10,000, and then figuring out how to make money on it later.

What's amazing is that the Web enables you to build a kind of channel that wouldn't have made sense for cable, in the same way cable enabled you to build content that wouldn't have made sense for broadcast. You couldn't have done CNN with the broadcast networks; you couldn't have done MTV with the broadcast networks.

At MTV, although the audience is smaller, I found it more interesting to deliver news to a specific group of people, because my story then did not have to try to be all things to all people.

One of the amazing things about the Internet is that the content creators are the gatekeepers. We can think of an idea and execute it quickly, and we didn't have to pitch the idea to a major network or convince a studio head to sign-off on the concept.

While I love the medium, I've always been skeptical about the value of blogs as businesses.

Jonah Peretti is one of the smartest web publishers out there. And Buzzfeed is an aggressive and dynamic company.

It would take a lifetime to read all the webcomics published in one year.

A blog is neither a diary nor a journal. Many people think of blogging in relation to those two things, confessional or practical. It is neither but includes elements of both.

If folks focus in on a niche and own it, there is a good chance they could make half a living from blogging.

As my blog editor knows all too well, I wasn't all that keen to enter the blogosphere world.

I write for a lot of places, so I'm on a lot of promo lists.

There certainly was a lot of potential in the air for doing a magazine which focused on the way business, in particular, was being transformed by the Internet.

I think the next set of media companies are going to be created on the web and that YouTube is going to be a big part of that.

Blogging got the concept of personal publishing, but it didn't really take advantage of the network.

Blog-based businesses have lower cost structures and are more 'authentic,' and as a result are drawing larger shares of ad budgets.

The Web is going to capture an increasing share of people's attention, and billions of dollars are going to flow in. What Web 2.0 is about is harnessing those dollars in highly leverageable ways.

As one of the first creators on YouTube, I've been fortunate to sit in the front row, witnessing the remarkable evolution of digital media. The experiences and knowledge I've been afforded are invaluable, and I'm excited to take that skill set, together with Endemol Beyond, to build a reliable, reputable business.