Well...I wouldn't classify starting a blog as a startup/viable long term business. If you are, indeed, starting a digital publishing house then I think you nee

Well...I wouldn't classify starting a blog as a startup/viable long term business. If you are, indeed, starting a digital publishing house then I think you need to come up with a viable/more sustainable business model more quickly than just relying on advertising at some point in the future. Hacker Monthly is a perfect example of this. They released a few editions, then quickly put up a pay wall. A blog, in the most generic sense, I think is better served being a 'free' marketing tool. The main focus should be, as 37Signals so eloquently put it, to teach your users and subsequently build an audience. Edit: I would also like to point out that I don't disagree that there are some businesses that make sense for pageviews/uniques - my main point is that we (the industry) are still suffering from the bad branding caused by the 90s boom & bust. i.e. start a company and figure out revenue later. I am suggesting such a drastic shift, in an attempt to drastically change that mindset. Once that mindset is changed, then we can loosen a bit - and 'encourage' some models that require pageviews first (but perhaps by that time we won't need to, because more platforms like http://www.flattr.com http://www.flattr.com will be mainstream and bloggers can get paid for each article, than relying on advertising).