09 Blogs To Watch In 09

Everyone knows the big, major a-list Bloggers who get all of the attention. Blogs are shifting away from being personal journals to being full-fledged media properties. It is increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. With hundreds of millions of Blogs out there (over 130 million at Technorati‘s last count), how do you know who to follow (and who to trust) anymore?

Before we stick a final fork in 2008 and look forward to 2009, let’s take this brief moment to thank the following nine Blogs for getting us to think differently. My hopes are that in the New Year, these new media properties continue to pump out the killer content and, in the process, pick up a couple of new community members. As you sip on your last few days of vacation before the madness of the office kicks in, do yourself a favour and check out one (or all) of the following Blogs.

Here are 09 Blogs for you to watch in 09 (in alphabetical order):

From Where I Sit by Michael S. Hyatt.

Hyatt is the the President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, "the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S." He has been with the company for over a decade and is embracing anything and everything to do with new media. His Blog is very personal and offers amazing marketing and business strategy insights from someone in the middle of an industry in flux.

HughMcguire.net by Hugh McGuire (also check out The Book Oven Blog).

One of the smartest people I know (and a personal friend), McGuire is the brains behind LibriVox. His personal Blog dances between posts about the media, the open source movement, the economy and politics. He’s been Blogging for a long while, but deserves much more attention and traffic. His new start-up, The Book Oven (still in stealth mode), also has an amazing Blog that focuses on the publishing industry. Full disclosure: I sit on the board of advisors for The Book Oven.

MediaShift by PBS (multi-authored).

There’s almost too much great content on MediaShift. This PBS Blog curated by multiple authors focuses on all things Digital Media. If you are thinking that you only have time to visit one Blog in your busy and hectic schedule, this might be the one.

One Mann’s Opinion by Kneale Mann.

Mann is a former radio guy with a long history in the music and entertainment industry. Understanding the radical changes that those industries are facing, he started playing around with Social Media and the Digital Marketing channels. One of the results is this, his personal Blog. His insights are poignant, fresh, but more importantly, well-structured and well-written. He is a pleasure to read and mixes humour and rawness with the experience of someone who has seen it and done it all. It’s great to see industry veterans digging in deep and playing with the space.

The Praized Blog by Sebastien Provencher.

More people need to reading Sebastien Provencher. This former Yellow Pages Group executive cut loose into his own start-up a few years back, Praized, and brings deep publishing insights to the Blogosphere. The Praized Blog doesn’t just look and comment on what’s happening, it breaks down the core pieces and discusses what it really means to the average business person… and why they need to care.

PressThink by Jay Rosen.

Jay Rosen might be considered an a-lister in the journalism world, but I’m not sure if enough people are really connecting to everything he is doing. This NYU Journalism Professor is dropping insane amounts of media knowledge, challenging the status quo of the newspaper industry and sharing everything along the way. PressThink is a great place to get a feel for his high-brow thinking, but it’s just the beginning. His stuff on Twitter is amazing and his latest project, NewAssignement.net, looks equally compelling.

Publishing 2.0 by Scott Karp.

This Blog about "how technology is transforming media" is constantly filled with challenges and opportunities for how the traditional news makers can get better and smarter by using the Web. Karp is known for coining the term, ‘Link Journalism‘, and the Blog is constantly filled with a steady stream of creative and practical solutions that have real muscle behind them. You will be especially fond of his, "I Am The Future of Journalism Contest" that he is currently running (hey, if they aren’t going to teach this stuff in Journalism school, why not have a place like Publishing 2.0 to do it.)

Technocite by Roberto Rocha. 
Rocha is a Business Reporter for the Montreal Gazette who focuses on technology. He’s not just a journalist with a beat, he is a passionate technology guy. Some of the words he writes, or the stories that he is privy to don’t always make it into the print edition, so he’s been Blogging up a storm over at Technocite. With a heavy focus on technology, business and a slant towards the start-ups, Rocha’s journalistic acumen and precision makes the Blog a pleasure to read if you need to better understand how technology is changing the very fabric of business. Full disclosure: I also write a business column for the Montreal Gazette.

Twitterrati by Mark Evans.

Mark Evans was the technology reporter for many national news organizations before heading off into the start-up world. He is the co-founder of the very popular Web 2.0 conference, Mesh, and is also a passionate Blogger. Just recently, he launched Twitterrati a brand new Blog focused on Twitter, "the growing number of tools to use it, and the microblogging market, including players such as Tumblr, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Yammer, et al." Let’s face it, Twitter is hot and everyone is interested in all things Twitter, so having someone with a professional background in Journalism scoping out the platforms is something extremely interesting to read and follow.

Side note: almost all of the people listed above are also well worth checking out on Twitter too. Most of them have content that is just as interesting bursting out of their 140 character limit.

Who are your unsung Blog heroes and who else should we be watching (and reading) in 2009?