We’ve posted last night’s Atlanta Press Club panel as a podcast if you’re interested. The subject, if you haven’t been following along, was “New Media: The Changing Media Landscape.”

Griftdrift has thoughts here and here, Armani here, and Grayson here. I’ll update this later with other links as I find them.

The discussion was lively and unconference-style, with viewpoints from traditional media, bloggers, PR folks, non-profits and even a venture capitalist thrown in for good measure. I feel a lot better this morning than I felt this time last week.

The point I keep coming back to is the one Joseph made about data now being infinite, and how the whole traditional media business model previously relied on scarcity of data. There were only so many printing presses (since they were expensive) and so many airwaves for radio and television stations. So, only a few large companies with vast resources could make the necessary investments to secure those outlets. As such, we had little choice but to go to them for information.

Now bandwidth and disk space are so inexpensive that they’re practically free, with prices dropping further every day. So media companies can no longer rely on scarcity of data as a way to make money. Anybody with access to a computer can start their own media outlet now. And since most public libraries have PCs with Internet access, that means you can do it for free if you can’t afford an entry-level $250 computer or monthly access charges. Projects like OLPC are even trying to get that kind of basic access into third world countries. It’s not a totally democratic process yet, but it’s more democratic than it’s ever been and getting more so every day.

I mention that because the question often came up of “how are bloggers making money?” I wanted to pose the question about scarcity of data to the panel, because I think the economic questions are just as pressing for professionals as they are for amateurs. People were jumping in with comments so fast that I didn’t get the chance to ask, though. The VC and I discussed it after the session and we both shrugged our shoulders.

That inevitably leads to “why do people blog if they’re not making any money?” See Griftdrift’s second post above for his answers to those questions. I’d just say, well, why do people sit around in a bar and talk about politics or sports or the weather or a movie they just saw when they’re not being paid to talk about those things? A blog is just a different venue for the conversations people were already having, with different advantages and disadvantages compared to other venues.

Update 10:45 a.m.: Grayson has more.

Update 1:01 p.m.: As do Sara and Amber.

Update 1:05 p.m. And Griftdrift again.