I’ve blogged, advertised and invested with PPP. The competition between Mike/TechCrunch and PPP is pretty straightforward. The same reader that reads a gatekeeper blog like TC, also reads 20+ niche blogs based upon their varied interests. Thus, every single day sponsors are deciding whether to spend social media marketing dollars with a gatekeeper like TechCrunch or the long-tail via PPP to reach social media readers.

The more Mike can slow PPP’s progress the longer he can maintain gatekeeper status. The more progress PPP makes proving their ROI with sponsors and bloggers, the more Mike is disintermediated as a gatekeeper to social media readers.

This disintermediation of gatekeepers is a common theme in many industries and the gatekeepers always try hard to slow the inevitable.

Just my thoughts…I hope it helps.