Following hot in the footsteps of Robert Scoble and Tara Hunt, Om Malik has apparently jumped into the entrepreneurial world. According to Valleywag, Om is going to focus on growing the GigaOm empire. It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur when you have a paycheck coming in every week but given GigaOm's popularity and the strength of Om's personal brand, it's a pretty good vehicle to take a shot at becoming rich and famous (although I'd argue Om is already famous). Om's decision makes my post about Scoble's move to PodTech.net look pretty prescient because it's another sign the rockstars of the blogosphere are looking to capitalize on their popularity. Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of dot-com bubble II when reporters/bloggers decide to stop watching the action, and start playing in the game (I did it during dot-com bubble I to join a start-up)....or maybe it's just the beginning of something really exciting. Good luck, Om!
Update: Om, who is gracious enough to concede Valleywag scooped his news, has a post explaining his reasons for going out on his own. It includes a paragraph that should resonate with all newspapers reporters as the Web becomes the way to consume information.
   Om has raised some money from True Ventures, and will continue to write a monthly column for Business 2.0.