Naturally, the day after I post about great opportunities and new frontiers in aggregation and blogging, comes word of moderate cutbacks at Gawker Media.

Plenty of commenters are suggesting that this marks the end of the “golden age in blogging.” No way. If anything, it’s a sign that Gawker is developing into a mature media company, one that just happens to primarily publish blogs. And media companies are about to take a hit in advertising revenue, and media companies based in New York are probably going to lead the way.

This is the first time that the blogosphere will experience the business cycle. If you need a refresher, companies that grew and expanded in times of plenty probably also developed some inefficient practices and redundant roles. In times of lean, you take a good hard look at yourself and shed what you can, make more with less, and prepare yourself for when the economy turns back around.

That’s what happened today at Gawker, and it’s probably only the beginning for the industry. No way does Gawker fold altogether — they’re too good at what they do, and Nick Denton knows what he’s doing. But if he has to shed some titles that aren’t viable and find more efficient ways to generate and pool his editorial, that’s the media business.

There’s still no better time to take your bold idea and bring it to life. There are very few overnight sensations — you just don’t happen to see the months and years of laying the groundwork. Get started now, and when the economy turns, be in a position to take advantage.

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If it’s good enough for Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of InterActiveCorp…

Diller: IAC `extremely lucky’ with split timing

Diller still wants to add to the pared-down IAC, though. In October, the company is planning to launch The Daily Beast, a news-aggregating site with editorial content. IAC’s partner on the project is Tina Brown, former editor of The New Yorker.

And Diller said the company is “extremely interested” in bringing in Web sites with structured content that can add to IAC’s search and local content stables.

This is the wager that Diller is making: bring in an established editor with her own “brand,” allow her to aggregate and comment on the stories from around the world that interest her, and folks will come back for it every day. If they do the little things right, Diller and Brown’s site will be a big part of the “continuum” very quickly.

Local content aggregation also has a great deal of potential for growth. Most searches are local in scope — where’s the closest pizza place, what time does the mall open, who can recommend a veterinarian — and advertisers are willing to pay a premium to reach an audience based on their geography. It’s the formula that makes sites like Gothamist so successful — valuable local aggregation and commentary builds the audience, and allows advertisers to target ads that are relevant and add even more value.

If you’re already running a site like this, now is the time to evaluate your strategy, shore up your SEO, and get ready to leverage these new opportunities. If you’re in a community that isn’t yet served by a site (or you think you can do better), now is the time to get started. Let me know how I can help.

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