Why do you blog for your newspaper?

Let's be honest, most writers who blog do so out of self-preservation. The things that a boss could tell someone to do for no additional pay, and get even a peep of protest on fairness or financial grounds, is an increasingly short list.

Those who blog are hoping that those who decline to blog feel the hatchet man's blade first. Period.

But if you've been employed as a reporter or writer for a long time and reached some sense of equilibrium with your employer, then the day when they start unilaterally lumping all sorts of extra, unpaid work onto your day/week can be the day it becomes attractive to find a different sort of job. If a boss won't at least sympathize and say, "I know this stinks but..." and tries to toe the company line of "You now MUST do this too...," then I think that boss sucks and I'll work elsewhere.

Just my two cents as well, but I think most popularity measures in this business are based on the beat and not the journalist. The NFL coverage gets more attention than the small colleges, even if you've got Joe Blow on pro football and Dave Kindred on East Podunk. As for columnists, I've yet to see one leave or even join a rival and affect circulation numbers.

I feel a little better now. Thanks.

 

It baffles me that AN EDITOR would expect writers to do work and get paid extra for it. Blogging is part of the job now. It isn't 1995. Your post is an excellent example of the terrible mentality of newspaper employees.

 

Your ignorance slays me. You cant think of our places of businesses as newspapers. We are media companies. Web sites plus papers, plus social media. It's all one package and you get compensated for the whole package.

 

VJ:

I think you've made my point. The guy who doesn't blog gets all those advantages (health care, etc.) without having to exert the effort to blog 3 plus times a day. And the person I'm thinking of certainly could blog and be great at it, but I think he chooses not to because the reward is minimal. Besides, he already has written like 5 books so I'm guessing he'd rather put his effort into that than a blog that doesn't pay.

 

Sometimes you do things because they are good for your brand and good for you company and not just your pocket book. They are the things that get you noticed in life.

Do you think the kid at google or yahoo won't go the extra mile?

 

Mustang

I'm an not that kind of editor, more like a slot with no power, so I know the grind better than most.

Certainly it is an entire package of newspaper, web, social media, talk shows, TV appearances, etc. but again why do the people doing that extra work not get compensated for the "whole" package. The guy who doesn't blog or appear on talk shows or on TV shows gets just as much money as the person who is doing all the extras. That's why I say the writers who don't blog are the smartest or maybe just put their effort elsewhere.

 

Because newspapers cant be successful if they are paying people to blog. What does 1,000 web hits make a company? Ten cents? They'd be losing money paying employees more to do their jobs and write!

It's just one of those things now. Joe Sports Writer won't get by with five stories a week and a column. Newspapers need more production. They need the stories, the column, the blogs, the videos, the tweeting and everything else. Everyone has to be able to do everything to keep the ship from sinking.

 

Mustang

Really is that why one of our writers has maybe 100 bylines a year and still gets to keep his job despite our pleas to the editor that said writer does more. You're barking up the wrong tree with me as I worked for small newspapers where I did do everything and never complained about it as I thought that's what a reporter did. I for one think publishers have been exceedingly slow in adpating to new technologies and that's why most will close.


"What does 1,000 web hits make a company? Ten cents? They'd be losing money paying employees more to do their jobs and write!"

That exactly it. The new model is don't pay a salary. The new pay model is pay per click and reporters are lucky to get a penny per view. There are several "media" companies doing this and the people working for them think they are real journalists.

I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we've been paid for the stories we've done all these years.

You are deluding yourself if you think because everyone has to do everything that will save newspapers. The ship has been sinking for a while now unless you haven't heard that papers are closing left and right. Guys can blog 80 times a week or appear on 20 talk shows a week and it's not going to help with some advertisers. One of my best friends was probably the hardest working guy on his staff and got laid off after 21 years with no severance. None. Another person had worked there for 37 years and again got zero severance. Thanks for your service, sir, here's the door.

 

Oh and that kid at Google or Yahoo is likely making $75,000 per year or at leastthat's what some of our new media types tell me and we wonder why folks are leaving newspapers at every turn.

 

If the argument is that a person should get compensated for the blog entries because of the ad revenue that it brings in - which is likely very limited anyway - you could make the same argument that the person should have been given additional compensation from print ads that ran adjacent to that individual's stories.

 

I dunno man. I get paid 40 hours a week and our news hole has shrunk to the point that I'm writing far less for the print edition anyway. Online. Print. Whatever. It's writing. I'm not actually working any harder than I was. Just differently.

 

I don't think on 2 million page views per month that it is that limited, but I have no access to advertisers detailed info.

The argument is don't blog and get the same money (zero) that someone else gets for blogging multiple times per day or doing an in-game live blog.

I have specifically asked many writers if they would work only on a pay-per-click or pay-per-view basis instead of an hourly or weekly salary and none said they would, but again that is the trending model for almost all new online media companies or Web sites. Hell, places like Bleacher Report don't even pay at all and still get many million page views per month so somebody is getting that money.