Blogging has long been talked about as the web's next big thing, with hundreds of thousands of people launching their own online diaries, some more influential than others.
Gawker Media, a blogging company founded by former Financial Times journalist Nick Denton, has been more successful than most with its series of culture blogs, which began with the critically successful Manhattan culture and gossip blog Gawker.
The new partnership with Nike, called , will see a series of 15 short films on the theme of speed run.
It is a new move for advertisers trying to target a hard to reach demographic. Right now, the numbers are small for a global advertiser like Nike. The network of Gawker sites, which also include pornography site Fleshbot and Los Angeles and Hollywood gossip site Defamer, attract around 400,000 to 700,000 visitors each month.
Nike says never mind the width it is the quality that counts. Nate Tobecksen, communications manager at Nike, said: "It's the right community. It may be small, but it's an important and influential group."
The Nike deal is part of a launch by Gawker of a new paid-for contract publishing service called Gawker Media Contract Publications, which is effectively modelled on the offline world of contract publishing, and represents a new revenue stream.
Denton, publisher of Gawker Media, has not said how much the deal is worth and nor has Nike, but it is a welcome new source of revenue for a business that has struggled to make cash out of the acres of coverage.
There is some revenue -- blogs take advertising like any other site and Nike became an advertiser on Gawker.com last month before taking things further with the Art of Speed.
According to Denton, Nike has been fairly hands-off in its approach. "They've been smart in adopting a light touch and are very careful to ensure that it emerges as organically as possible," he said.
Nike is not the first advertisers to experiment with blogs. Other advertisers who have experimented include the likes of Dr Pepper/7-Up, but its Ragingcow.com effort was not well received and was described as cynical exploitative when launched.
There is also an online sales company called Blogads, which helps advertisers find the blogs that best match the audience they are trying to meet.
The key to getting it right, according to Denton, and avoiding the Dr Pepper experience, is following the contract publishing model, being open and honest with the public in letting them know what they are seeing is there on behalf of an advertiser, in the same way people know when they pick up High Life that it is from British Airways.
"Contract publishing is well established in offline media. The key is full disclosure," Denton said.
So far, comments made have been positive ones and the policy of disclosure seems to have paid off and could pave the way for more corporate blogging.
Jason Calacanis of the Weblogs Inc Network, said: "This is a great step towards making bloggers a living while maintaining the independent voice of blogs."
Gawker is now looking at further options, which might see it providing editorial and creating co-branded Gawker sites.
"We're going to be cautious about it and [only] do contract weblogs for appropriate clients. Smart marketers will understand the medium. The others probably shouldn't experiment yet with weblogs," he said.
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