When blogs go bye-bye.

And I would argue that part of the reason for Twitter's popularity is directly related to my original hypothesis. Twitter gives the bloggers of old a way to reduce the work load to quick, mindless dispatches. I.E. less work.

 

Hell, Gannett should have thrown the guy some bread to keep the blog going - it was oddly mollifying knowing that your paper wasn't the only one dealing with crazy corporate mandates or clueless management.

 

Dear Da Man: I assume people would read a Campbell Soup blog if they didn't know how to make green bean casserole, and Thanksgiving company was arriving in 20 minutes.

 

I said it on another thread a while back, and a couple said here on this thread, people won't work for free.

At what point does a man or woman with a 9-5 job get sick of working eight hours, going to council and posting on it, aggregating news links until midnight and then having their significant other or kids say "when will you spend time with us?"?

I think that time is here. Or close, anyway.

 

Can't make money off it. I think only DC centered political blogs are the only ones that can make a dent, and they have to be very good.

There are fine sport blogs out there, but I think the blog thing has come and gone. Once newspapers started doing blogs, it ruined the medium. The blog was cool because it was an alternative to newspapers. Now, we have the worst of both worlds. Unedited blogs that rehash the newspaper.

It's also a practical factor. Look at the failure of ESPN's blog network. No one uses them as a main source on anything. Blogs are supporting material unless you do it fulltime.

 

I think you are right. Let's say a newspaper next fall hires 10 citizen journalists to kick some ass covering the community including a high school sports writer, a pro sports writer and a college sports writer and tells them to go for it and enjoy covering games with a real press pass for free.
After covering one month of games and seeing how tough it is (the editors are still going to want copy on time, etc) and how uncomfortable they feel after a month in their role as a fan (getting dirty looks from spts information directors, players) they'll want out. They'll simply quit. Ain't getting paid anyway.

 

Not to mention getting home and realizing that they haven't cleaned their basement in months.

 

And as bloggers, they gotta live down there and everything.

 

I think it was Lawrence Block who wrote this long before blogs existed, I can't remember. It was something like people are willing to work hard at playing music just for fun, paint or sculpt or act in community theater or take serious photos just for fun and they're fine with the idea that they'll never make a dime from it, but people who write usually do so with an eye toward an eventual payday. If I remember right, the point was that it's no easier to write professionally than it is to make money in any other creative field, but most people who try it think it ought to be.

I think the Internet's made it more palatable for people to keep at it longer than they might have pre-Internet. But while the instinct that they should be paid is buried a little deeper now, I think most people still have that nagging thought that if they aren't paid even a minimal amount to write, they aren't really writing. And eventually they'll get frustrated.

 

Because I hear it's mmm mmmm good.

 

This, to me, is something I am surprised has not yet presented itself as a scarier situation for newspapers.
I heard an interview a couple years back with a Procter and Gamble executive talking about their increased commitment to developing content for the Web.
Consider the options:
A company like P&G is not about to buy a printing press and set up a distribution system to compete with the alternative of offering Sunday coupons for its brands in newspapers, a vehicle that has the distribution but editorial content P&G can't control.
With the cheap method of delivery of the Interwebs, companies can develop sites for every brand and hire people to produce controlled online content to help consumers use those brands to make their lives better. (That effort could range from hiring writers of advertising fluff copy or trying to do a full-scale infotainment effort along the lines of bud.tv). Companies can run promotions, including coupons, with less reliance on other parties to deliver the message.

Who wants to read a soup blog? Why do newspapers have Food sections? I think they're taking a stab at people who make dinner and are looking for yet another way to turn that can of chicken noodle into something tasty. And those people likely are the ones who purchase the groceries.

 

Great topic.

Last post really nailed the reason for worry. Users/consumers can now bypass our medium (newspapers, broadcasting) and get their Tweets/blog info straight from the company or product. That's trouble.

Also, I agree with the Blog thing losing interest for content. Having had novels published, I have no problem writing 3,000 words in a sit-down writing session but updating my blog to promote it with a 300-word plug or angle is much more of a challenge for me... ugh.