The Blog Herald is chatting about Syntagma Media in its weekly podcast. I haven’t had the chance to listen to it yet, so I hope I’m not driving you into the flames.

It seems they’re discussing our decision to reposition the network as a Web Network Magazine rather than a blog network. Of course, as a business exclusively aimed at blogging, BlogMedia (owner of The Blog Herald) is defending its patch. Our move must seem like apostasy to them.

The problem lies not with the blogosphere itself (it’s amazing) but that once you get into the commercial side of it, you find that “blogging” is not associated in the wider public’s mind with “shopping” or even “finding accurate, in-depth information”.

We’re aiming for this wider audience. Bloggers rarely click on ads — that’s a truism. People searching on products and services, on the other hand, do. It’s as simple as that. We’re now a business, not a blog; a media operation, not individuals shouting to get a word in edgeways.

As I posted under Are there three blogospheres? there are areas where the blogosphere shades into mainstream media. It happens at the fringes of the tertiary and commercial blogospheres. Syntagma is positioning itself there to draw in a wider audience.

We are a business, and we will continue pushing the envelope as we go. The “blogosphere” can easily become your jailer if you allow it to mask all other opportunities.