The recent issue of New York magazine carries a profile of Jason Calacanis, who recently sold his Weblogsinc network of around 85 blogs to AOL.



People want to know: what would a champion of new media be like if one had all the trappings of old media, dense corporate culture and all that?



It suggests, as some already have, that Calacanis is a Rupert Murdoch-wannabe for the Web 2.0 generation.

‘I don’t see why I can’t be the next Michael Eisner or Barry Diller . . . someone has to be.’

So what can we learn from the redoubtable Jason Calcanis?





1.The real face of new media is that it wants to be old media. It means that if want your nanopublishing venture to make it big, it helps to have the same savvy that Jason Calacanis has.



The article goes on to say, Calcanis has always wanted to be big.



Compared to someone like the ever-experimental Nick Denton of Gawker, Calacanis, who also ran the Silicon Alley Reporter, which later folded up, is in the old media mould.



In fact, Engadget, the superstar among the Weblogslogsinc network owes its enormous success to Peter Rojas. How Peter Rojas left Gizmodo for Engadget is just like the usual old media ’staff - poaching’ tales.



2. Run your blogs like a magazine. If you run a gadget blog, look up PC magazine and see what works. Put all the workable content into neat categories. Build up a community around that useful content.



3. Always be on the look out for deals: anything that gives a better visibility to your online publishing ventures will do.

Being high up has always appeared to matter a great deal to Calacanis. From the earliest days of, his avid gadflyism has always seemed driven by a naked (and even refreshing) eagerness to shimmy up the greasy pole.

4. Center your content around events: for example, Engadget does great on-the-spot coverage of all consumer technology events like CES.



5. Find a bigger playground where you can shine out.



Standing out is important to top-obsessed people like Calacanis.

Consider Calacanis’s stated rationale-calculating and needy in equal measure-for preferring AOL to Yahoo: ‘If I’d landed at Yahoo, I’d be hanging out with [Del.icio.us founder] Josh Schachter and [Flickr founder] Caterina Fake, debating the finer points of this stuff. But at AOL, I’m probably the most knowledgeable person on this area, so they really needed my help.’

Bonus: Pick big, king-of-the-moment topics and pick your bones about it. If you stay on big topics, people pay attention, the reasoning goes.



Calcanis’ personal blog is good example.



Now, I hope you are ready to be the next Jason Calcanis.