More on content farms

While researching content farms, I found a thought-provoking blog post by Matt Gratt:  Content Farms, Performance Publishing, and the Future of Online Media. One of the first points that he makes is that "content farm" is a somewhat demeaning term; he prefers "performance publishing".

Whatever you might think of these sites, it's clear that they've made a huge impact on traditional publishing, in much the same way that the iTunes music store impacted the traditional music production industry. A lot has been said regarding the quality of content generated by this type of publishing, but Matt makes the point that:

...a preponderance of re-written garbage will make the well researched, well written stories rise to the top. If anything, more Demand Media-esque content will make the New York Times stick out more. 

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently started writing for Yahoo Associated Content. It's more of an experiment than anything else, at this stage. It should be interesting to watch the evolution of the industry, though.