One of the more interesting trends we've been following over the last few years is the rapid growth of small business media coverage.
The main reason for the jump in coverage is the growing popularity of small business, which is leading to a growing audience for small business content.
The Internet and new media are, of course, another reason for the increased coverage. New media has created the opportunity for entrepreneurs to create new online publishing companies.
Some, like Small Business Trends, SmallbizTechnology and MyVenturePad focus entirely on small business. So do hundreds if not thousands of lesser known small business sites.
Others, like AOL, Slate and the recently acquired by AOL Huffington Post are more broad based, but also cover small business. I include in this category the tech focused sites with lots of small business coverage, like Mashable, Giga Om and Tech Crunch.
Traditional media, in most cases, has also continued their small business coverage and in some cases, like the Christian Science Monitor, increased it.
Adding to this is the small business publishing efforts of corporations that serve the small business market. The largest site of this type is Open Forum, from American Express. I'm only half-joking when I say everyone I know writes for them.
Other companies with large content sites targeting small business includes Intuit, Network Solutions, Bank of America - the list goes on and on (and on).
Silicon Valley Watcher's Tom Foremski describes this trend as "every company is a media company" and the companies serving the small business space are aggressively pursuing this approach.
The demand for small business content has reached the point where startups and new media agencies focused on generating small business content for 3rd parties are being formed. GrowBiz Media, for example, writes articles on small business for corporations and government agencies.
The growth of corporate sites has interesting business model implications for both traditional and new media companies - the biggest being corporate sites are seen as a marketing expense instead of a business that needs to generate a profit.
We're not sure how this is going to turn out, but we'll keep tracking it.
Disclosure: normally we list any relationships we have with companies mentioned in our posts. In this case, we've written for, worked with, or been quoted in articles done by pretty much everyone listed - and yes, we've contributed to Amex's Open Forum.
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