We just interviewed a potential candidate for our operations manager position. Not surprisingly, he also blogs. When I asked why, he said it was about having passion, and that getting paid to blog is nice but not as important as having a voice. The comment resonated with me given some thoughts I’ve had recently about newspapers suddenly embracing blogging after brushing it off for several years.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to see traditional media (aka Old Media) finally get jiggy with blogging but I think the number of really good blogs done by newspapers will be few and far between, which is one reason why the blogosphere will continue to have a wide variety of big and small voices operating on a fairly level playing field. Why? Fundamentally, most reporters writing blogs are doing so because they have to do it; not because they want to do it. As a result, these blogs lack passion and enthusiasm – two critical elements for successful blogs. Many newspaper bloggers are just going through the motions.
You have to remember that the current generation of reporters are being asked to do more – write for the newspaper, write for the Web, blog, podcast, video blog – with little or no additional compensation while newsrooms are shrinking. How much energy would you put into something new if your boss said there was nothing it in for you except more work? Of course, the next generation of reporters will likely have an entirely different attitude and skill set, which may means they’ll be more enthusiastic about blogging, video blogging, etc. In the meantime, most newspaper blogs will likely be, at best, alright but nothing to write home about.
I would be remiss by not pointing out there are newspapers that get it. The Guardian and Telegraph in the U.K. do it well, as does the Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury. In Canada, Mathew Ingram is one of the best newspaper bloggers – and I’m not saying that just because he’s my friend and one of the mesh organizers.
Update: Business 2.0, which has made blogging mandatory for its writers, has issued checks for the first three months of the year based on a $2.50 for every 1,000 pageviews. The most popular – and most lucrative – blog is Business 2.0 Beta, written by Owen Thomas; followed by the Apple 2.0 blog written by new executive editor Philip Elmer-Dewitt. Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner said a handful of bloggers made $2,000 to $2,500 over during the first quarter. Based on Business 2.0′s experiment, you have to wonder whether paying writers/reporters is how newspapers and magazines are going to get their people to blog, and blog well (passion for hire?).
Thanks for the kind words, Mark. The cheque is in the mail
Good post, Mark. Agree the passion is critical, although some of the finest old media writers do have that passion…it is what got them there in the first place, and what motivates them to stay at the top of their game. The blog phenomenom however is terrific in that the “long-tail’ passions can now be covered along with the more mainstream content that tends to drive old media.
When I was in journalism classes, there was much talk about writing objectively. Most blogs that are interesting to me are ones where the writer is very opinionated. That seems to be an inherent conflict with most journalists except those that write editorials, which are in the minority.
As a newcomer to the world of blogs, I find myself agreeing with you. It’s a brave man that accuses Bill Blunt of being a technophobe, but if, in my day, I’d been asked to not only write my regular columns but also construct a blog, I know I would have been onto the NUJ pronto!
It’s one thing for me to pen a few random rambles now that I’ve formally hung up my quill, but if anyone had expected me to write a regular blog on top of my columns in the Birkenhead Beagle, they would have seen the sharp side of my tongue.
I can’t imagine Johnny Mercer or Freddy Marples would have stood for it, either!
Yours for a better standard of journalism,
Bill Blunt
Blogging is not the best use of the Net by newspapers. Instead, newspapers should focus on the opportunities the Internet offers to expand news coverage into areas of genuine importance to readers. Forget (largely) about international news because it is available 24/7 on either cable or the Net — long before the newspaper is delivered. Concentrate on municipal government, education, neighborhoods, etc.
The newspaper business model is changing all right. But blogging is just one more layer of opinion. And the readers want stuff that is real in their lives. Not more BS.
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Two of our younger staff members lobbied hard to create a blog for our magazine (National Geographic Traveler), and the results have been very gratifying. They do it because they love it, not because they have to, and I think that makes all the difference.
Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media » Saturday squibs
[...] Why Newspaper Blogs Don’t Work. Mark Evans has some thoughts. Short version: It’s all about passion. An aside: I’m not sure why more newspapers don’t use blogs for some of their storytelling. [...]
I’ll tell you what doesn’t work: Making generalizations like this one. The very good newspaper reporters DO have a passion for their subject matter, and it shows in their blogs. And unlike many bloggers, they have direct knowledge of their subject matter, not simply knowledge derived from reading a lot of other people’s reporting.
Are they all good, or all better than non-newspaper blogs? Of course not. That would be making a weak generalization.
Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation and the Web » Blog Archive » The Secret Ingredient for Successful Blogging: Passion
[...] Evans shares his thoughts on journalists’ adoption of blogging: “Fundamentally, most reporters writing blogs are doing so because they have to do it; not [...]
$2.50 CPM is pretty low; I’ll bet Business 2.0 gets a nice multiple of that for ads placed on those blogs. Still, it’s nice to see a feedback loop between site popularity and author compensation, though you wonder if there will start to be perverse incentives that degenerate into Digg-style tabloid headlines to draw in readers.
Good blogs are clearly apppealing to online newspaper readers are are providing a valuable part of the traffic. But there are still far to many of the kind you identify which serve little purpose. In January I suggested five tests for a newspaper blog:
1. Does it do anything which cannot better be done in another section of the site?
2. Does it develop the paper’s interaction with the readers?
3. Does it gain a valuable audience? (A particular niche, readers who are new to the paper etc.)
4. Can you give the blogger sufficient time to blog successfully?
5. Have you chosen a writer or writers who have the aptitude to blog successfully?
Maybe a generalization but blogging and reporting are completely different writing styles. The papers are dying because they lack the entertainment value of blogs.
http://blogs.jobdig.com/diggings/2008/06/23/seattle-dailies-in-worse-shape-than-twin-cities-dailies/
The problems with most blogs is that journalistic integrity seems not that important to most bloggers. Passion about a subject should not be a subsitute for integrity, a good writer has that ability. True journalists offer fair and balanced facts. Blog papers that add their political or emotional agenda are just rhetoric, we need fewer Fox News reporters, not more.