Paris - Traditional media such as newspapers and radios are casting an increasingly covetous eye over the growing number of internet blogs, hoping to cash in on a slice of the action.
With daily newspaper circulation in decline, the highly critical and at-times irreverent world of the personal online journal with its potential to attract millions of readers is looking more and more attractive.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch even warned the American Society of Newspaper Editors last month that the owners of traditional media cannot afford to be complacent.
Young people "want their news on demand, when it works for them. They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it. They want to question, to probe, to offer a different angle," Murdoch said.
"Where four out of every five Americans in 1964 read a paper every day, today, only half do. Among just younger readers, the numbers are even worse.
"So unless we awaken to these changes, and adapt quickly, we will as an industry, be relegated to the status of also-rans, or worse, many of us will disappear altogether."
According to the US web consultants Perseus, blogs are increasing at an incredible rate. In 1999, just 23 blogs were thought to exist.
Now there are more than 31m, and the figure is set to reach 53m by the end of the year.
That is a huge global community of people, all with something to say, for better or worse, on every topic under the sun.
In South Korea, 30 000 people contribute to the country's new, sole online daily OhmyNews.
Already some newspapers have moved towards trying to incorporate the bloggers' world within the pages of their own papers.
The Guardian newspaper in Britain turned a young Iraqi into an overnight success when it picked up his blog filed during the height of the 2003 war in Iraq.
Salam Pax's vision of the horrors of daily life was soon scoring 20 000 hits a day, and The Guardian eventually recruited him as a journalist.
As well as recruiting would-be reporters, media outlets are also giving free rein to their journalists to launch their own blogs.
Launched in December 2002, "skyblog" from Skyrock radio targets the 12-to 24-year-olds, and now counts some 1.9m blogs, with 5 000 to 10 000 new ones being created daily.
Last year Skyrock's electronic platform counted for some 20% of the radio's €25m ($32.35m) turnover.
According to Le Meur at Six Apart, blogs can be a rich source of revenue in several ways, from advertising to sponsorship.
"Several brand names are beginning to seek out those bloggers who are influential in their fields, to pay them and get them to test products.
"Media see in this an opportunity for this to evolve from a brand that diffuses information, to a brand that gives its readers their say."